The Prince of Quidditch and the Eagle's Scroll
by Lahdolphin
Summary: At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi find not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great mystery that has been unsolved for centuries… if they can overcome the obstacles that stand in their way. [HP-AU - COMPLETE]
1. Journey to Hogwarts

**Two things!**

 **1\. You do not have to have read/watched the Harry Potter series to understand this story. However, if you haven't read/watched the series and are confused about anything, feel free to ask!**

 **2\. This story will be updated once every three days until the final chapter is uploaded. If you wish to read the completed fic, it is available on ao3 (link on my profile).**

* * *

 **Journey to Hogwarts**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

Yukimura Seiichi and Sanada Genichirou were proud to say that they were not perfectly normal, thank you very much. At first glance, they looked like the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, but that was as far from the truth as you could get. Despite their age and their ability to easily please any adults around them, they were special, even within the magical community. Both boys were wizards of the brightest kind and they were perfectly happy that way.

On September first, the two young boys made their way through the crowded train station toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Their family lingered several feet behind, the men with their son's trolleys, which held stacks of heavy leather chests and mismatching bags stuffed to the brim with the boys' belongings. Feather quills stuck out of Yukimura's satchel and a small, black, pewter cauldron sat cushioned between two of Sanada's overstuffed bags. To those passing by, they must have looked awfully strange, but the boys were unbothered by strange things and what other people thought of them.

A small girl with the most peculiar blue clutched the sleeve of her mother's blouse. "Why are people staring?" the girl asked quietly.

"Because I'm so good looking," an older boy replied, turning to smile at the young girl, who giggled.

The girl's mother laughed and put an arm around her daughter. "Akiteru, don't go spreading lies."

"That's cold, Mrs. Yukimura," Akiteru said.

Sanada Akiteru was walking between the adults and the two boys, and he pushed his own trolley. He was a handsome boy with dark hair and a hard face, a more matured version of his younger brother Genichirou, who still had a child's face and turned red if you pointed it out. On one of Akiteru's bags was a large, perfectly shined purple badge with a large P, and on top of his chest was a rattling cage that contained an overly vocal owl.

"It's Akiteru's owl—most muggles don't see owls every day like we do," Mrs. Yukimura explained to her daughter as they hurried along. "We can buy you one when you go to school, if you want. We said the same thing to Seiichi, but he said he didn't want one. What was your reason, Seiichi?"

But Yukimura was not listening. He had already seen the platform barrier and ran ahead of Sanada, who hurried to keep up. The two boys stopped in front of the brick barrier and silently stared at it while their families caught up with them.

They had both gone through the platform before when sending off Akiteru to school, but they had never passed through with the intention of boarding the scarlet train on the other side. Yukimura felt like he had been waiting his whole life to board that train and attend the famed school—Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Akiteru was the first to reach the two boys, who were still staring at the barrier between platforms nine and ten with silence looks of awe.

"It's not going to bite you, Gen," Akiteru said to his younger brother with a teasing smile.

"I know that," the younger boy grumbled, a faint dusting of red covering his cheeks. "I've gone through it before…"

Yukimura turned to his childhood friend and smiled brightly, unable to contain his excitement. "Let's go together, then, one right after the other. I can go first if you're scared."

"I'm not scared!"

"Then go before Seiichi," Akiteru said.

The rest of the their family members arrived, though the two families spent so much time together that they as well have been one large family. It certainly felt that way to Yukimura.

"Akiteru, don't you have to board the train early since you're a prefect?" Mrs. Sanada asked with a stern expression.

 _Prefect_. The word made Yukimura and Sanada share an exasperated look.

Since their letters arrived, Akiteru's containing a prefect badge, the two boys had had to suffer through Akiteru's constant bragging that he was a prefect. He constantly teased Sanada, who, according to Akiteru, had a lot to live up to.

Sanada's brother was already a fifth year at school and was part of the family house, Slytherin. It was the house their parents had been in, and their parents before them, and their parents as far back as they have had magic in their blood. They were not a truly pure-blood family like the Yukimura's—some muggles were in the Sanada family tree as well as a few squibs and many half-bloods—but they might as well have been pure-bloods. Their roots grew from magic older than many of the remaining pure-blood families.

And now, on top of all of that, Akiteru was a prefect.

Akiteru looked panicked when he realized his mother was right and he did indeed need to board the train early. He left his trolley with the caged owl for a few short moments, just long enough to nod good-bye to his parents and the Yukimura's, and hug Yukimura's little sister good-bye.

Yukimura knew that his sister thought of Akiteru and Genichirou as her brothers; she was always upset when Akiteru left. Now, Yukimura and Sanada were leaving as well. Yukimura thought that she must be devastated.

The young girl looked ready to cry when Akiteru stood back up from their hug. Akiteru knelt down to her eye level and said, "I'll make sure to write if you do, okay?"

The girl nodded excitedly. "Okay!"

Akiteru hugged her once more before standing. He grabbed his cart and, sending Sanada a smug smirk, ran straight towards the brick wall. He passed through as if the wall was never there.

"Are you boys ready?" Mr. Yukimura asked. The boys nodded and their fathers came forward their trolleys, which weighed nearly as much as the boys who grasped the handles and pointed them to the barrier.

"Be careful, they're heavy," Mr. Sanada said.

"Best to go at a run," Mr. Yukimura added.

"Don't run into each other on the other side," Mrs. Sanada cautioned.

"We'll be right behind you, boys," Mrs. Yukimura finished with a warm smile.

Yukimura smiled at Sanada and said, "You go first, Genichirou."

Sanada nodded then, with a determined look, took off towards the barrier at a bit of a run, closing his eyes in preparation for impact, before the front of his cart passed through without a problem. The cart disappeared, then the boy.

Yukimura did not wait to follow, running straight at the wall, eyes opened wide as he passed through the enchanted barrier and exited on the other side to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. He nearly drove his cart into Sanada's back, but Yukimura skillfully avoided the collision and slowed to a stop next to his friend.

Sanada stood silently once again, staring, and Yukimura understood why. The Hogwarts Express was right there in front of them and they were finally boarding it. It was a dream Yukimura often had, but now it was finally a reality and he could not believe it.

"We should move before our parents come through," Yukimura said. Sanada nodded in agreement and the two boys, with some difficulty, moved their heavy trolleys to the side.

Their families came through together, one after another, joining their sons and directing them to the loading dock so their things could be placed aboard the train. Prefects directed the process, helping muggle-borns that looked like startled owls and their parents who looked none the wiser. Yukimura saw no sign of Akiteru, though Yukimura was far too busy looking at the train to look for the older boy.

Mrs. Yukimura smiled. "Go ahead and board, Seiichi. Find a compartment with Genichirou. Make some friends."

Yukimura smiled at his mother. "We'll make sure to say good-bye before the train leaves." He turned to Sanada and said, "Let's go."

Sanada nodded. His mother handed him a bag with his and Yukimura's unmarked robes, said, "Watch out for yourself," and kissed his cheek. Sanada blushed as he walked alongside Yukimura, who smiled happily.

The train was larger on the inside than it was on the outside. They passed two Hufflepuffs who were playing Exploding Snap on the floor of a compartment and Gryffindors who were chasing one another down the hallway firing spells. Sparks curled and flew inches from Yukimura's ear and laughter carried down the halls. Ravenclaws played wizards' chess in another compartment, an older student gathering money as the bystanders took bets on who would win.

Despite the chaos, Yukimura and Sanada managed to find an empty compartment and shut the door behind them. Padded seats with faded fabric lined either side of the compartment and a large window with the curtains drawn back overlooked the station below. The room was small yet spacious at the same time, with just enough room to stretch out their legs without bumping if they were sitting on opposite benches. Yukimura was sure that the older students with longer legs did not share the same sentiment.

Yukimura moved to open the window, sticking his upper half out to look for his family. "Genichirou, help me look."

Sanada said nothing, dropped his bag onto one bench, and appeared at Yukimura's side moments later.

As they scanned the platform, the train's whistle blew, high and long, with thick grayish smoke rolling off the front of the train like the metal machine was breathing. Students that had yet to board began to hurry for good-bye kisses, some lingering behind for one more hug, and all at once everyone seemed to rush onto the train with owls and cats in tow.

Unable to spot his family in the chaos, Yukimura frowned. He had wanted to see his sister before leaving. He hoped she would be okay. She was always complaining how lonely she was without Akiteru around. Without him and Sanada there…

"Found you guys!" Akiteru said from the hall. He was now wearing his Slytherin robes along with his prefect badge, which was pinned over his left breast near the house emblem, a twisted silver snake surrounded by emerald green.

Akiteru entered the compartment and, with great difficulty, squeezed his upper half out the window alongside the younger boys, trapping Sanada in-between him and Yukimura. Sanada grunted in discomfort as he moved, shifting in a futile effort to find more space. Akiteru spotted their families instantly in the mob and shouted to get their attention.

"Not in my ear," Sanada muttered.

Yukimura's younger sister bounded up to the side of the train, restrained only by her mother's gentle hand on her shoulder. Yukimura smiled and waved at his kid sister.

The train whistle hissed loudly overhead.

"Be good; stay out of trouble," Mrs. Yukimura said.

"When do we ever get into trouble?" Yukimura asked.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of both of them," Akiteru said. "Even if Gen's placed in Hufflepuff."

Yukimura chuckled. That was a funny picture.

"I won't be put in _Hufflepuff_ of all places," Sanada said.

Suddenly, the train jerked forward; Yukimura almost cracked his head against the window. Slowly, the gears turned, spinning and whirring to life as smoke clouded the air, speeding up along with the sound of metal churns. The train was departing and Yukimura had nothing else to say because the excitement of it all left him thoughtless. He was heading to Hogwarts at last. He felt like he was going home, though he had never been there.

Seconds after the platform was out of earshot, Akiteru pulled his head inside and told the two boys he needed to attend a meeting in the first carriage and that he would see them later at the Sorting, if not before then.

Yukimura and Sanada continued to hang out the window and watch as the station disappeared. When the station was nothing more than an indistinguishable dot in the distance, the two boys settled into their seats.

Yukimura turned his head to Sanada to speak, but before the words could be formed, the door to their compartment opened. Yukimura half expected to see Akiteru standing there with a teasing smile, asking if Sanada was crying yet, but instead he saw an unimpressive scrawny boy with an awful haircut that looked like it belonged on one of his sister's dolls. The boy was already dressed in his black robes, which lacked a house sigil, meaning he was a first year like them. His hair was brown and his eyes were closed, which was rather odd even to Yukimura, who had grown up surrounded by oddities.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" the boy asked.

Yukimura smiled and began to talk before Sanada had the chance to say no. "Of course," Yukimura said. The boy closed the door behind him then sat down next to Sanada. "I'm Yukimura, by the way, pure-blood. That's Sanada. Ignore what everyone says, he's also a pure-blood."

"My name is Yanagi. I'm a half-blood."

"Nice to meet you, Yanagi. How do you see if your eyes are closed?"

" _Seiichi,_ " Sanada hissed.

"I'm curious. Would you rather I not ask? I know you're thinking the same thing, Genichirou."

Yanagi smiled. "My eyes aren't _actually_ closed. I'm very sensitive to light so I look down and keep them as close to shut as possible." As he talked, he opened his eyes, which were an ordinary brown but had something about them that caught Yukimura's interest.

Yukimura considered himself to be very good at reading people, at telling if they were special, if they were bound to do great things. He couldn't explain it, but he felt Yanagi was special. Or perhaps the excitement of it all was affecting his judgment. Only time would tell.

* * *

"The trolley should have come by now," Sanada said.

"Is your sweet tooth acting up?" Yukimura asked.

"I don't have a sweet tooth."

Yukimura smiled. "Well, I'm hungry too. I'm going to go find the trolley lady. Do you want to come with me?"

"I know you and you're going to get into trouble."

"No?"

"No."

Yukimura looked at Yanagi and asked him the same thing. Unlike Sanada, Yanagi nodded and stood to leave with Yukimura.

The train corridors were much calmer than they had been when they boarded, though students still walked up and down the length of the carts, stopping into compartments to reunite with old friends. Yukimura and Yanagi walked from carriage to carriage in search of the trolley. Towards the front of the train, they saw an elderly woman with a trolley cart talking to what looked like a conductor.

"Excuse me, Ma'am?" Yukimura smiled in the way he knew adults liked, especially older adults that liked to pinch his cheeks and say how he looked so pretty like a girl. He didn't like those adults. He asked, "Can we buy something? I think we missed the trolley."

"Sorry, dear, but a young man bought everything I had to sell."

Yukimura frowned. "Everything?"

"Yes. It was a boy a couple of carts down." The woman pointed in a direction as she spoke.

"Thank you anyways and have a good day."

Yukimura turned around towards the direction the woman had been pointing. He looked into each cart quickly as to not raise suspicion, but long enough to see if there was a trolley's worth pile of sweets inside.

Three carriages and twelve compartments later, Yukimura looked inside a compartment and saw four young boys with a large pile of candy and sweets on one of the two seats. One of the four boys Yukimura knew.

The boy had glasses and a serious look about him that had always reminded Yukimura of Sanada, who also wore a serious expression more often than not. His name was Tezuka and he came from a prominent magical family, though he was not a pure-blood. Yukimura, Sanada and Tezuka attended the same wizarding preparatory school as children, but Tezuka transferred to a larger school several years ago and Yukimura had not seen him since.

The other three boys were new faces to Yukimura. An arrogant-looking boy with new black robes sat with his back to the window and was concentrating on reading the back of a Chocolate Frog card. His intense demeanor disappeared when the boy next to him plucked the card straight from his hand. This second boy had curly blond hair, wore muggle clothes, and had several Jelly Slugs hanging from his mouth.

Yukimura knocked then entered the compartment.

"Hello, Tezuka," Yukimura said, smiling and waving. "Nice to see you again."

"Yukimura," Tezuka said.

"Yukimura?" the arrogant boy said. "From the pure-blood Yukimuras?"

"Yes," Yukimura said. "This is my friend, Yanagi. And who might you be?"

"Atobe Keigo."

That name sounded awfully familiar, but Yukimura could not remember why. It was one of the names his parents would scold him for not recognizing, he was sure of it.

"I'm Akutagawa, but you can just call me Jirou!" the blond boy said, his Jelly Slugs now in his lap. "Are you first years?"

Whether Akutagawa was bouncing with sugar energy or natural energy, Yukimura did not know, but he was certainly and quite literally _bouncing_.

"Yes, we are," Yanagi answered. "Are you?"

Akutagawa nodded, reaching into the large pile of candy on the seat. Akutagawa picked up a lollipop and offered it to the fourth boy in the compartment, who was sitting next to Tezuka. The boy was rather girlish looking, much like Yukimura was, with thin lips, pale brown hair, and startling blue eyes.

"No, thank you, Jirou," the boy said. Tezuka must have seen where Yukimura was looking because he gently nudged the blue-eyed boy with his elbow. "Ah, my name is Fuji. Nice to meet you both."

Akutagawa loudly unwrapped his lollipop and Yukimura remembered why they had come into his compartment in the first place.

"We were wondering if we could have some sweets," Yukimura said. He reached into his pocket for a small pouch stuffed with gold galleons. "I can pay."

"I already bought it and it's mine," Atobe said.

"You can have my share, Yukimura," Tezuka said. When Atobe glared fixedly at him, Tezuka said, "I told you I don't eat candy when you gave it to me. It'll be a waste to not eat it."

Atobe crossed his arms and pointedly did not looking at either Yukimura or Yanagi.

Yukimura gave Atobe several galleons for the sweets—rather, he had to give them to Tezuka to later give to Atobe, who refused to take them—and stuffed his pockets full of candies and treats and gathered as many as he could into his arms.

They returned to their compartment with their spoils, which they split equally between the three of them. They told Sanada what happened, including seeing Tezuka again.

"I wonder if he'll join his house team," was all Sanada said.

They then began to talk about Hogwarts and what they were looking forward to most. Yanagi was especially anxious about Defense Against the Dark Arts, listing off spells and techniques he hoped they would learn their first year while taking small bites of his Liquorice Wand. Yukimura talked for some length of time about Herbology and the plants he cared for at his home estate then switched topics to Quidditch and his favorite teams. Yanagi had more to say on academics than Quidditch, but Yukimura spoke enough for both of them when it came to Quidditch. Sanada remained silent for most of their conversation, quietly eating Pumpkin Pasties and reading his Chocolate Frog cards.

Yukimura reached into their pile of sweets and opened a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. He smiled at Sanada, who frowned.

"No," Sanada said, and then turned to Yanagi to explain. "Seiichi has a talent for finding the rarest, nastiest flavors."

"Flavors of what?" Yanagi asked.

"I thought you were a half-blood," Yukimura said.

"I am a half-blood."

"I just thought that every magical child had heard of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans."

"My parents didn't let me have sweets."

Yukimura reached into the box, tossed a purple bean in his mouth, and smiled. "Grape."

He offered the box to Sanada, who took it with a sigh and a muttered, "I will regret this." Sanada picked a bean at random and chewed it before he could regret his choice. He swallowed without vomiting, which was a good sign.

"Marshmallow," Sanada said, visibly relieved. He passed the box to Yanagi. "You can usually tell what flavor they are by looking at them long enough, but Seiichi will get mad at you."

"I will not," Yukimura said.

"You called me a pansy when I did it."

"That was Akiteru and it was because you were being a pansy."

" _Oh_ ," Yanagi said suddenly. His face had turned a startling shade of green.

"What flavor did you get?" Yukimura asked.

Yanagi sounded hesitant, "Soap?"

When Yanagi spoke, small white bubbles came out of his mouth. Yukimura was the first to laugh, but the other two were not far behind. Yanagi's laughter filled their compartment with tiny bubbles.

* * *

They ate candy until they were full and sated and were surrounded by a sizeable mountain of colorful trash. Yukimura found that talking to Yanagi was easy and enjoyable, and he had secretly begun to hope that the three of them would be placed into the same house.

Yukimura and Yanagi were in the middle of discussing wizards' chess strategies when they heard a knock on their compartment door. A female Slytherin prefect that reminded Yukimura of Fuji opened the door to their compartment.

"We'll be at Hogsmeade Station soon," the prefect told them. "Either find a bathroom and change into your robes or lock the door and change in here."

"We will," Yukimura said with a reassuring smile.

The prefect nodded, seemingly pleased with Yukimura's simple response and smile, as many adults were, and left their compartment to find the next group of first years.

"Do you mind if Genichirou and I change in here?" Yukimura asked Yanagi, though he looked at Sanada to see if his friend was alright with that. Even though Sanada would deny it if you asked him, he was shy and Yukimura had no intentions of putting his friend into an uncomfortable situation.

Sanada nodded subtly just as Yanagi answered, "Not at all."

Yukimura stood, locking the door, and pulled his change of robes from the bag Sanada had brought along. Sanada shifted his eyes to Yanagi hesitantly then, burning red for what Yukimura swore was the hundredth time that day, he lifted his shirt over his head. Yanagi politely averted his eyes, staring at what must have been a very fascinating spot on the wall.

The black robes were heavy and Yukimura's fingers kept slipping on the buttons of his shirt. Sanada seemed to struggle just as much if his muttered words were any indication of his progress. Yukimura's tie was currently in a knotted, ugly mess around his collar and looked nothing like it should. Yukimura frowned at his tie, glancing at Yanagi's for reference, and wondered if the boy used some kind of magic to make it look so perfect. Yukimura turned to Sanada, who had his tie perfectly done as well.

"My mom made Akiteru show me," Sanada said. He glanced at Yanagi and added, "My brother is a prefect for Slytherin."

"Prefect?" Yanagi questioned.

"Students with extra responsibility and power, like the girl who just came in. My brother was just excited about being able to use some secret bathroom."

How could a half-blood not know what a Hogwarts prefect was? Yukimura wondered if Yanagi's parents were separated and his muggle parent raised him, or if he was raised by muggles all together for some strange reason. It was also possible that Yanagi's family was not from this area and his parents attended another wizarding school.

"Genichirou, will you show me how to do my tie?"

"It's always weird to hear you ask for me help on something," Sanada said, probably more to himself than Yukimura, who smiled and thanked him for his help.

Sanada struggled slightly with Yukimura's tie. His entire face was scrunched together like he had just eaten something sour, but Yukimura knew that meant Sanada was concentrating very hard. Several failed attempts later Yukimura had a semi-presentable tie.

But before Sanada and Yukimura could even sit back down, there was loud, heavy banging on the door.

"What is it now?" Yanagi asked.

"At least things are interesting," Yukimura said, smiling.

Sanada opened the door to their compartment and two first years in black robes rushed inside without saying anything. There was a tall lanky black boy with no hair who had a panicked look about him. The other boy was considerably shorter and had startling red hair that reminded Yukimura of a chili-flavored Bertie Bott's bean.

Once inside, the two boys forcibly closed the compartment door and the black boy peered outside by moving the curtains slightly. They were both panting heavily.

"Are you alright?" Yukimura asked with a concerned frown. "Do you want me to find a prefect?"

The black boy got a panicked look—more panicked than before, at least—that resembled a centaur in headlights. " _No_ ," he said quickly. "Anything but another prefect."

"What happened?"

The redhead grinned wickedly. "I'm a bloody genius is what happened."

"Bloody idiot," the black boy snapped. "He looked like he was going to kill us."

"I told you I could do it and you didn't believe me. I'm a _genius_."

"You hexed a prefect!"

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi shared a silent look then whipped their heads back to the two boys. Yukimura was eager to hear more. Even Sanada seemed to crane forward to make sure he heard every word.

The redhead looked out into the hall. "He's passing by! We're safe." He turned to the black boy and said, " _See?_ I told you it would be fine."

"I hate you. I've known you for a few hours, and I hate you."

"C'mon, don't say that. Hate is such a strong word. Besides, it was a good hex, wasn't it?"

Yukimura was even more curious now and again asked, "What happened?"

It was the redheaded boy who spoke. "Jackal here didn't believe me when I said I could do a Bat-Bogey Hex. So I took out my wand and because I'm a genius, I cast the hex."

"He cast it right as the prefect came in to tell us something," Jackal said. "I thought he was going to hex my legs off!"

"But he didn't, so it's all good. Oh, and I'm Marui, in case you were wondering what the name of Hogwarts' newest—"

"If you say genius, I'll hex you," Jackal cut in.

Amused, Yukimura extended his hand to Marui. "I'm Yukimura, pure-blood. That's Sanada, also pure-blood, and Yanagi, half-blood."

Marui did not take his hand. "Blood status isn't that important to me."

Yukimura was taken aback. It was not important to him either, not really. He had been raised tolerant of muggle-borns and squibs and everything in-between. It was simply that that was how he was taught to introduce himself and that he was to be proud of his heritage. Was there anything wrong with that?

"I'm sorry if it sounded like I care about that," Yukimura said truthfully, lowering his hand to his side. "I don't. Honestly."

"Then why'd you mention it?"

"I… don't know."

Marui squinted intently at him for a brief moment then shrugged easily. "Okay. We're cool, then. Jackal's cool, too."

"I'm right here," Jackal said. "I can speak for myself."

Marui ignored him. "Is it okay if we hang out here? That prefect is out for my head. Sure hope I'm not placed into Ravenclaw with him. Jackal, you'd take a hex for me, wouldn't you?"

"No," Jackal replied flatly.

"You can stay in here," Yukimura said. Yanagi nodded in agreement and Sanada did not oppose, which Yukimura knew was as close to agreeing as he would come.

Marui glanced at the pile of trash and sweets. "Wait. Are you the jerks who bought the entire trolley?"

"No," Yukimura said. "Would you like some? I think we have a few things left."

If Marui drooled anymore than he did, he would have flooded the compartment.

* * *

When the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station, everyone was ordered to leave the train and step onto a tiny platform. After being stuffed inside the train for so long, the cool autumn air was refreshing. It was completely dark outside and every star in sky was clearly visible above their heads. Prefects held their wands high, illuminating the station with a simple spell.

On the platform, there was a voice calling out, "First years with me! Everyone else follow the prefects to the carriages."

Yukimura, Sanada, Yanagi, Marui, and Jackal stuck closely together as they walked through the crowd of students towards the voice. Prefects helped direct first years and older returning students to where they needed to go. They passed a Ravenclaw prefect with tissues shoved up his nose and Marui made a distressed sound.

"That's the Ravenclaw I hexed," Marui said, grabbing Jackal by the robes. "We've got to run. See you guys at the Sorting!"

Yukimura smiled and waved pleasantly as Marui and Jackal dodged their way through the crowd of first years, disappearing from sight.

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi continued forward until they were at the front of a group of first years that had gathered around two older students with badges that read Head Boy and Head Girl.

Yukimura looked to see if there was anyone he recognized around him and saw Fuji and Tezuka walking towards them.

"Tezuka," Sanada said.

"Sanada," Tezuka said.

Yukimura smiled at Fuji and told him, "They've always been like this."

The Head Boy raised his voice again, "First years, follow me!" and began to walk away from the station in the opposite direction of the older students. The Head Girl stayed behind to shepherd the first years along.

As they walked, Yukimura leaned over to Sanada and asked, "Wasn't a professor supposed to take us across on the boats?"

Sanada shrugged slightly, looking rather confused. "I thought so too."

Fuji cleared his throat. Yukimura and Sanada turned to look at him. "My sister is a sixth year prefect for Slytherin," he said, "and she told me the professor who used to take students across went on a trip to Romania a few years ago and no one has heard from him since. I wonder if he was attacked by some wild creature…"

They were led to the edge of the Great Lake where dozens of small boats with hanging lanterns were sitting in the water. There were no oars and Yanagi asked how they were supposed to get across the lake.

One by one, students began to pile into the boats. Yukimura and the others stepped into a boat together. Once full, the boat shoved off into the dark water of the lake, moving silently across the dark surface. Hogwarts Castle stood in the distance.


	2. The Sorting

**The Sorting**

 _Sanada Genichirou_

Yukimura and Sanada lost sight of Tezuka and Fuji in the crowd of first years, but Yanagi remained close behind them. Sanada had no strong feelings about Yanagi one way or the other—they had only known each other for a few hours for Merlin's sake—but Yukimura seemed to have taken a liking to him and Sanada knew that meant he would be seeing more of Yanagi in the future. Sanada did not have many friends of his own, but Yukimura's friends were often his by extension.

Inside Hogwarts Castle, they were led into a large room with two gilded doors that nearly touched the ceiling. Standing in front of them was a middle-aged woman in deep magenta robes that spilled down onto the floor. The corners of her eyes were wrinkled with crow's-feet and laugh lines framed her mouth. She wore large pointed hat that matched her robes.

"You can call me Professor Ryuzaki," the woman said in a loud voice. "In a few moments, I'll be taking you into the Great Hall to be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. Your achievements will earn your house points and your failures will lose them. At the end of the year, the House Cup is presented to the house with the most points. It's just a bit of friendly competition, but everyone should take it seriously. My house, Gryffindor, has won the Cup the past three years.

"During the ceremony, I will call all of you up by name. All you have to do is come forward, sit on the stool, and the Sorting Hat will take care of the rest. After you've been sorted, go and sit at your house table."

Yukimura shifted eagerly besides Sanada, who was feeling ill with worry. What if he wasn't placed into Slytherin? Worse, what if he wasn't placed in the same house as Yukimura?

"Ready?" Professor Ryuzaki asked. She did not wait for an answer. "Good. Let's go."

With a wave of her wand, the heavy doors pushed apart and they proceeded into the Great Hall. Sanada had never seen such a place. Thousands of lit candles hovered in the air, lighting the enormous hall that was spanned by four long tables. These tables had shining golden goblets and plates and hungry students who gazed upon the first years with curiosity and some pity, no doubt remembering what it was like to walk down the hall their first year. There was one table per house. Sanada saw Akiteru at the Slytherin table among the hundreds of faces, but Akiteru did not see him.

Sanada heard Yukimura say, "The ceiling really is enchanted…" Sanada tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling. Instead of intricate bricks and intersecting arches, he saw a velvety black night sky dotted with hundreds of stars. It was hard to believe that there was a ceiling behind the sky.

At the end of the hall was another table that ran the width of the room. Professors of different ages, genders, and races occupied all of the chairs along the table with the exception of the grand, throne-like middle chair and the one Sanada assumed belonged to Professor Ryuzaki; these two were unoccupied. A lone stool stood in front of the professor's table and on it sat a dusty, ripped up, old hat.

The noisy hall quieted as Professor Ryuzaki began to talk, "I'm sure you're all hungry so I'll hurry this along. Before I can begin the Sorting ceremony, the Sorting Hat has a song for us."

Sanada stood on his toes to see over the girl in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yukimura craning his neck to get a better view.

The old hat straightened out its point and a large tear along the bottom of the hat opened like a flap, or a mouth. Then, the hat began to sing:

" _Welcome, welcome back to Hogwarts .  
Welcome, welcome back to school.  
Welcome, welcome back to Hogwarts,  
Where everything is magical._

" _Magic awaits you and magic you will learn,  
But first you must be sorted_— _don't be concerned!  
I am the Sorting Hat and it is my job, you see,  
To place you in the house where you are destined to be._

" _You could be a lion, in the house of Gryffindor,  
If nerve and courage are in your heart;  
The lions are daring and bold,  
And they bleed red and gold._

" _You could be a snake, in the house of Slytherin,  
If power and intelligence are what you seek;  
The snakes are driven by ambition and greed,  
And they bleed silver and green._

" _You could be an eagle, in the house of Ravenclaw,  
If your mind is truly creative and witty;  
The eagles are the thinkers of this school,  
And they bleed bronze and blue._

" _You could be a badger, in the house of Hufflepuff,  
If you are always kind and true;  
The badgers are not the kind to turn their backs,  
And they bleed yellow and black._

" _I see more in you than you have yet to see,  
But no matter where you are, a home your house will be.  
The houses stand together through thick and thin,  
And now that my song is over, let the Sorting begin!"_

The Great Hall erupted with applause and shouts, Yukimura among them, while Sanada only clapped. Somewhere behind him, he heard Marui say, "That was brilliant!"

Professor Ryuzaki waited for the noise to calm down and then called out the first name from a long scroll. The first years looked around to see who was moving forward, staring at them as they moved through the crowd. A girl sat on the stool and the hat was placed on her head.

"Akiteru said the hat talks to you in your head," Sanada said.

"I wonder what it'll say to me," Yukimura said.

Loudly, the hat shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table clapped and shouted as they welcomed the girl to their table.

The first name that Sanada recognized was Atobe, the boy who supposedly bought the entire trolley on the train. Atobe was the first one to walk to the stool with confidence. His swagger was annoying but Sanada envied the boy's natural confidence.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Atobe strutted over to the Ravenclaw table where a blond boy was bouncing excitedly.

The Sorting continued. Sanada recognized a few names and faces from school, but he had never befriended any of them and honestly did not care what houses they were sorted to.

"Fuji Syusuke."

The hat had barely touched Fuji's head before it shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

The two boys from the hexing incident on the train, Jackal and Marui, were both sorted into Gryffindor. A boy with strange white hair was sorted into Slytherin. Name after name was called and eventually, so was his.

"Sanada Genichirou."

"Good luck," Yukimura said with a friendly smile.

Sanada felt sick to his stomach. He took in a shuddering breath and walked towards the stool. He could feel hundreds of eyes on him—Yukimura and Akiteru's among them—and never in his life had he felt so small.

He sat, and waited, and saw the Sorting Hat out of the corner of his eye. The old hat looked even worse up close. The edges were frayed and the fabric was so heavily patched that Sanada wondered if any of the original fabric was left.

Sanada made tight fists over his knees and made sure to keep his head held high. It's what Akiteru would do. It's what Yukimurawould do.

Professor Ryuzaki lowered the hat onto his head.

" _Another Sanada?"_ The hat spoke straight into his mind, its voice in his ears. The hat said, _"Usually I'd throw you right into Slytherin, but…"_

Sanada frowned _. "But?"_ he inquired without speaking.

" _A good mind… loyal to a fault… and fair bit of bravery too_ ," the hat said. _"It'd be wrong of me to put you into Slytherin so quickly."_

Sanada felt like his stomach dropped all the way down to his feet. _"Why? Why not Slytherin?"_

" _Very rarely do I see such a well-rounded young wizard. You are practically brimming with potential! My, you will do great things in these halls, regardless of what house you are in."_

" _Then put me in Slytherin."_

" _Are you sure? You can go anywhere. You do not need to follow blindly in the footsteps of your family."_

" _Slytherin."_

" _Ah, youthful determination! Ambition! A thirst to prove yourself! So be it, Sanada Genichirou."_ The hat roared, "SLYTHERIN!"

The hat was lifted from his head and Sanada jumped off the stool to and headed towards the Slytherin table, which was clapping. Akiteru had sprung to his feet and was waving. Sanada smiled and waved back before sliding in next to another first year with blue hair and glasses named Oshitari. Sanada only remembered his name because there had been two Oshitaris in a row and this one had been called second.

He was so relieved that he had been placed into Slytherin that he hardly paid any attention to the Sorting until he heard Tezuka's name called. The Sorting Hat was on Tezuka's head for nearly a full minute before it declared, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The next name Sanada recognized was Yanagi's. Yanagi sat there for five minutes before the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

Sanada clapped with the rest of the Slytherins as Yanagi came over and sat next to him.

Yukimura was the last student to be sorted. When the hat was placed on his head, instead of remaining quiet like it had for all the other students, the hat laughed loudly. A wave of whispering broke out across the hall; even two professors leaned in close to discuss what had just happened. Apparently it was not common for the hat to laugh.

In no time at all, the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

Relief flooded Sanada. He was in the same house as Yukimura.

The Slytherin table burst to life, louder than before, probably to celebrate getting the last first year. Akiteru was once again on his feet to congratulate Yukimura, who sat down next to Yanagi.

"Isn't this great, Genichirou?" Yukimura said, smiling at him. "We're in the same house."

Sanada nodded, too embarrassed to say that he had been thinking the same thing.

"And the same house as Yanagi," Yukimura said, looking at the boy between them. "I'm glad the three of us were sorted together."

"Me too," Yanagi said, who seemed to smile merely because he was acknowledged.

Professor Ryuzaki picked up the hat. She waved her wand and the stool began to float several inches off the ground, following her as she walked to the side. At the same time, one of the professors stood up. He had disorderly, long, dark brown hair that came to his shoulders. He was younger than many of the other professors, one of which was a ghost that hovered over his chair instead of actually sitting.

The man spoke clearly, his voice carrying throughout the hall without magical aid, "I welcome back our old students as well as the new ones. For those who do not know me, I am Professor Kurobe, the substitute Headmaster as well as your resident Potions Master. I have several notices that I must share with you before we can begin the start-of-term banquet.

"First, a reminder that forest surrounding the grounds is off limits to students of all ages. Next, magic is not permitted in the corridors. Lastly, those interested in joining their house Quidditch team should wait for information to be posted in the common rooms.

"I expect great things from you this year, as I always do, but for now, please enjoy this wonderful feast!"

Food suddenly began to appear on the tables. There were baskets of steaming buttery rolls, plates of thick lamb chops, bowls filled to the brim with potatoes, and many more things that made Sanada's mouth water and stomach growl. Their goblets filled with water before their eyes. Students began to shovel food onto their plates and stuff their faces. Sanada could hardly believe that the food tasted better than it looked. Yukimura insisted he try the steak and kidney pie and Yanagi was adamant that the roast chicken was best; Sanada thought they were both delicious and refused to be the tiebreaker for their friendly disagreement.

When the main courses were replaced by dessert—pudding of every flavor, decorated cakes three layers tall, and blocks of assorted ice-cream, to name a few—the ghosts appeared. More than a dozen ghosts descended into the Great Hall from the back wall. They were silvery-white and transparent and paid more attention to each other than the students.

There was one ghost who lingered near the Slytherin table that none of the other ghosts would approach. He had a gaunt face, was covered in silver blood, and carried heavy chains in his hands that rattled as he glided alongside the Slytherin table.

"That's the Bloody Baron," Sanada overheard an older student telling another first year. "He's the Slytherin house ghost. If you get lost in the dungeons—that's where our dorms are—just wander around until you find him and he'll help you out."

"Why is he covered in blood?" Yanagi asked.

"No one knows. I don't even think the other ghosts know."

Sanada looked over at the Gryffindor table where a ghost had pulled its head to the side until it was hanging on by a flap of skin. Sanada saw Marui and Jackal's faces twist up in disgust at the horrific sight. Sanada quickly looked away and saw Yukimura looking at him intently.

"Is there something on my face?" Sanada asked.

"No," Yukimura assured, smiling. "I'm just wondering… What did the Sorting Hat say to you, Genichirou?"

"I knew you were going to ask that."

"That's not an answer."

Sanada said, "It said I could go anywhere. I told it to put me into Slytherin. Why did the hat laugh when it touched your head?"

"I have no idea." Sanada had known Yukimura since before they could walk and he knew when Yukimura was lying. Yukimura's pleasant smile and innocent tone did not fool him. Yukimura said, "You look like you don't believe me."

"I don't."

"Hmm," Yukimura hummed, and just as Sanada knew Yukimura was lying, he knew this would be the end of the conversation. "Yanagi, what did the hat say to you? You were up there longer than both us."

"The hat couldn't decide whether to put me in Ravenclaw or Slytherin," Yanagi said. "Obviously it decided on Slytherin. Yukimura, could you pass me the apple pie?"

* * *

Nearly an hour after the feast had started, it began to come to an end. A seventh year prefect from each table stood up and instructed the first years to follow them to the house dorms. Slytherin was the third group to leave the Great Hall, descending the stairs until they had reached the bottom floor of the castle.

They walked along a long, gloomy stone corridor that branched off in multiple directions. The prefect told them to remember where they turned—past the Potions classroom, fifth left, second right, third left, left, right, straight to the end of the hall, right again. The dungeons were more like a labyrinth, Sanada thought miserably as he desperately tried to remember the pattern.

"There's a password to get into the common room," the prefect said very formally. "It changes every fortnight. The new password is put on the notice board Sunday night. Do not give the password to anyone from another house."

The prefect stopped in front of a large, blank stone wall and said, " _Vipera aspis_."

The stones on the wall began to shift, rearranging to create an opening large enough for a small troll to fit through. The first years hurried inside. When the last person had entered, the stones moved back into place.

The rectangular room was furnished with black and dark green button-tufted, leather sofas and chairs, as well as several comfier looking armchairs with pillows. There were heavy blankets on the back of every sofa and chair to make up for the slight chill of the room, which lasted all year long according to Akiteru. Dark wood cupboards, tapestries, and decorative skulls from all types of creatures were placed throughout the room. Large windows flanked a fireplace on the wall farthest from them; the windows, surprisingly, did not show the open grounds but the murky depths of the giant lake that was located on campus. Despite their location and the eerie décor, the room had a calming affect from the soft greenish lights and the sound of running water from the lake.

"Students refer to this room as the Slytherin Dungeon, or the common room," the prefect said. "There are hidden entrances to study rooms and dueling spaces throughout the common room. Don't be surprised if moving a piece on a chessboard or taking a book off the shelf cause the walls to shift."

Sanada would bet five galleons that Yukimura would find every hidden room by the end of the week.

"Down the hall to the left are the girls' dormitories; down the right hall are the boys'."

The prefect told them the house policies on changing roommates and stressed that they should not lose their house any points on the first day tomorrow, then sent them off to unpack. The right hallway had door after door, each pressed closely together with less than a foot between them. Sanada was not eager to find whom he was rooming with for the next seven years, but to his relief, Yukimura pointed out a door with a silver plaque with his, Sanada and Yanagi's names.

The room was larger on the inside, but it was still rather small with the furniture rearranged neatly, giving the room a homey feel. The room was brighter with more candles and lanterns than the common room. Dark wood cupboards, dressers, and nightstands accompanied three four-poster beds with dark green curtains. Their bags and chests were already inside, piled at the end of each bed. There was another closed door in the room.

"This is nice," Yukimura said, walking around the room before checking the bags to see which bed was his. "This one's mine."

"It looks like they gave us robes," Yanagi said. He picked up a black robe from his bed to show them.

Sanada looked on his bed. There were several sets of robes in his size with the Slytherin house emblem as well as ties and scarves in green and silver. Sitting on top of the pile of clothes were two pieces of parchment; one was his class schedule and the other was a hastily written note from Akiteru.

 _When you're done unpacking, come to the common room with Seiichi.  
I have something for both of you._

— _Akiteru_

Yukimura checked where the other door led. He called Sanada and Yanagi inside to look at their private bathroom, which had a toilet, sink, shower stall, and deep claw foot tub with several faucets and knobs.

Yanagi returned to the bedroom to unpack and Sanada took the chance to tell Yukimura about Akiteru's note.

"We can see him once we're done," Yukimura said. "I wonder what he has for us. Do you think something of yours was packed in his bag my mistake? Your socks were always mixed up in the wash, weren't they?"

"But why would he need to see both of us if he just had a pair of my socks?"

"We'll figure what he has when we see him. Let's go unpack."

Sanada put his clothes into his cupboard and prepared his bag for school tomorrow. He had an excess of quills and ink, which he stored in his chest. He finished with surprising haste, as did Yukimura, who Sanada suspected had just shoved his clothes into the drawers instead of folding them.

Though Sanada and Yukimura had practically been raised as brothers, they were raised very differently. Sanada's strict family made Sanada do his share of the chores since he was young while Yukimura's family had a house elf that did all the laundry, the cleaning, and even most of the cooking. Yukimura was embarrassed by his lack of common knowledge about things like household work but he hid it well and did not let others use it against him. Sanada admired Yukimura's ability to stand above other's thoughts.

"Finished?" Yukimura asked. Sanada nodded. Yukimura looked at Yanagi, who finished unpacking before either of them and was sitting on his bed with a thick book. "Yanagi, we're going to find Akiteru, Genichirou's brother. We'll be back soon."

As they walked towards the common room, they saw Akiteru walking towards them. Sanada called out to him, but Akiteru said nothing. Akiteru walked right by them without saying a word. Yukimura and Sanada turned and stared at his retreating back as he walked further down the hall.

"That was odd," Yukimura said slowly. "Did you see his prefect badge?"

"I wasn't looking for his badge. Should we follow him?"

"We should check the common room. Something doesn't feel right."

Sanada did not know why they would check the common room when Akiteru just walked by them, but he knew better than to argue with Yukimura.

When they go to the common room, they saw Akiteru again sitting in front of the fire. This time, Akiteru waved them over.

What in the world was going on?

Yukimura and Sanada sat near Akiteru, who smiled broadly. "When the hat didn't put you in Slytherin right away, Gen, I thought you might get put somewhere else. Looks like I worried for no reason."

Sanada didn't dare tell his brother the hat almost put him in another house.

"After the prefects finished assigning rooms, I sent my owl home saying you were both sorted into Slytherin and were roomed together. I sent a letter to your family, too, Seiichi."

Yukimura smiled. "I suppose that means you're responsible for putting us in the same room?"

"I had to pull a few strings, but it was nothing I couldn't manage. I have no idea who the other guy is, though. Yanagi or something?"

"We actually met him on the train."

"Coincidences are strange like that," Akiteru said.

"Speaking of strange things," Yukimura said. "We saw someone who looked exactly like you when we left our room, but he didn't say anything to us."

"So you saw a handsome devil?" Akiteru said jokingly. Yukimura laughed, but Sanada did not. For all of his brother's strong points—his ambition, his power, his leadership—he had a horrible sense of humor.

"We really did see someone who looked just like you," Sanada said with a frown. "But he wasn't you—he didn't say anything to us."

Akiteru did not look overly concerned or interested. "Sometimes you'll see strange things in the halls. Don't question it or you'll drive yourself mad. You could also just be tired. Sleep affects the mind—you'll learn that during your first midnight Astronomy lesson when some poor kid almost falls off the Astronomy Tower."

They were both so tired they saw the same thing? Sanada doubted it. Yukimura did not look convinced either.

"What did you want to give us?" Sanada asked.

"Genichirou's socks?" Yukimura asked.

"This is way better than socks." Akiteru reached into the inner pocket of his robe, looked around to see who was near them, and then handed both of them a piece of parchment folded several times over.

Pushing his eyebrows together in confusion, Sanada unfolded the parchment. There were rudimentary sketches of the castle's floors with arrows and notes pointing out different classrooms and shortcuts. There were even notes about the hidden rooms in the common room that the prefect had mentioned. It was all done in Akiteru's handwriting.

"Maps?" Sanada asked.

"I didn't think you could have maps of the school," Yukimura said. "I thought they burst into flames or rip themselves apart so Dark Wizards couldn't use them to their advantage."

"Maps of the school do all of that," Akiteru said, "but if you know the right spell…"

"That must be pretty complex magic."

"I'm actually pretty good at magic, you know. No need to look so surprised." Sanada had no idea how complex a spell like that would be, but Yukimura sounded impressed, so that probably meant something. "Just make sure you don't show those to anyone else, even your friends. That scrap of paper is worth two months of detention, maybe more depending on who catches you with it."

Sanada wondered why he would bother with something that could get him into trouble, and then he saw a list of steps to get to the Slytherin dorms from the staircase. He didn't remember that many right turns. Maybe he needed the map after all.

"Thanks," Sanada grumbled.

"Yes, thank you very much." Yukimura slipped the map into the pocket of his robe then looked at Sanada. "We should get some sleep. We have class at eight o'clock tomorrow morning and I want breakfast before."

Sanada nodded in agreement. He was exhausted from the train ride and the stress of the Sorting and then he went and ate his weight in food at the feast. He was sure he would fall asleep as soon as he lied down.

"Thank you again," Yukimura said as they stood up. "Good night."

"Watch your backs from now on; people in this house won't do it for you," Akiteru warned, his eyes focused on Sanada rather than Yukimura. Then, with an easy smile and a wave, he said to both of them, "Good luck in class tomorrow. You'll need it."

Sanada frowned. What did he mean by that?


	3. Defense Against the Dark Arts

**Defense Against the Dark Arts**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi made it to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost with the help of Akiteru's maps, which they studied the night before so Yanagi did not discover their existence. They sat with the other first years in their house and ate a breakfast of eggs, toast with marmalade, and sausage links. They were all anxiously discussing their first class of the year.

"We have Defense Against the Dark Arts first," Yanagi said, looking over their schedule. "We have it with Gryffindor."

"My sister said the professor is interesting," Fuji said.

"But what does 'interesting' mean?" Oshitari asked.

"She said words wouldn't help explain it and that I would understand when I had the class."

Oshitari did not look satisfied with Fuji's answer.

"My brother said the same thing," Sanada said to Yukimura and Yanagi. "He never talks about the class, but he said he likes the professor. I think my parents know her somehow."

Yukimura looked around and saw a boy with strange white hair looking at them curiously. The boy was obviously listening in. Yukimura smiled at him and asked, "Do you know anything about the professor?"

The boy looked down at his plate and took a large bite of his eggs. He did not answer, unless you counted the subtle shrug of his shoulders as an answer.

The first year Slytherins all left at the same time to go to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was located somewhere on the third floor. They got lost on their way there and Yukimura was tempted to take out his map, but remembered what Akiteru said and chose to wander the corridor with the rest of the Slytherin first years until they found the correct classroom. The Gryffindors were already outside and glared at the Slytherins upon their arrival.

"They're glaring at us," Yukimura said with a sour expression. He knew there was a rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor, but he did not think it would be so bad. Akiteru even mentioned having friends in Gryffindor.

"What were you expecting?" Sanada asked. "For them to greet us, smiling?"

Suddenly, Marui and Jackal appeared at their side. Marui tossed an arm around Sanada's shoulder and asked, "What's up?"

Sanada jerked away from the Gryffindor, blushing furiously.

Marui and Jackal's appearance made Yukimura forget about the rest of the Gryffindors glaring at him and his housemates.

"Have you heard anything about this class?" Yukimura asked curiously.

"Apparently our professor is crazy," Marui said.

"Please don't hex her," Jackal said.

"Are you ever going to drop that?"

"We heard the same thing about the professor," Yukimura said. "I can't wait for class to start."

Marui stared at him. "You're weird, you know that, right?"

Just then, the door to the classroom swung open and a strong voice called out, "Get in here!"

"She sounds scary. Good luck, Jackal," Marui said and pushed Jackal inside. "Way to take one for the team!"

The room had high, intimidating, bare walls. An iron chandelier hung from the center of the room. Twisted around the chandelier and nearly spanning the entire length of the room was a stark white dragon skeleton, its wings spread outward like it may still take flight. The desks had all been pushed against the walls and were stacked neatly on top of one another.

Standing at the front of the room was their professor. She had black hair with large noticeable streaks of gray and stone cold eyes, and she wore a dark red lipstick. She reminded Yukimura of a bird of prey with the way she watched the first years enter, not saying a single word to them, as if she was deciding which one of them to attack first.

"My name is Professor Reyna," she said. "And today, I am your enemy."

She drew her wand from her black robes and several students startled. With a wave of her wand, the door slammed shut.

"I'm too young and beautiful to die," Marui said. "The world cannot be deprived of my genius."

"Shut up," Jackal hissed as he elbowed Marui in the stomach.

"Defense Against the Darks Arts is all about survival," Professor Reyna said. She began to slowly pace the front of the room, looking each of them in the eye. Her dark gaze was unsettling. "Whether you're facing a foul creature, a dark wizard, or your best friend, your first instinct should be to survive."

Professor Reyna pointed her wand at the wooden floor. A thick glob of white paint hit ground. She then moved her wand to the students.

"If you get hit by the paint, you die." The students shifted uncomfortably. "For every Gryffindor who dies, Slytherin will lose a point; for every Slytherin who dies, Gryffindor will lose a point."

" _What_?" several students muttered, looking around to see if they had heard right.

"Do we actually die?" a student asked.

Professor Reyna ignored them. "You have two minutes before I attack. You may use anything in the classroom to defend yourselves. I will not move from this spot." Professor Reyna pulled out a silver pocket watch and said, "Your time starts now."

For a moment, no one moved.

Then a Slytherin girl shrieked, "We have to protect _them_?"

"I'd rather die than protect a bunch of snakes!" a Gryffindor shouted.

"If we die, _you_ lose points. We should just throw ourselves in front of the spells."

"We'll get there first!"

The two sides began to yell indistinguishably at one another.

Marui turned to their small group. He looked panicked but was holding it together well. "I say wedon't jump in front of the crazy lady's spells. Jackal's got my back on this."

"I actually do for once," Jackal said.

"Let's forget about the points and protecting anyone but ourselves," Yukimura said. "This is about surviving, right? To do that, we need to avoid her spell. We're going to need some type of defense. We don't know any spells just yet, so something physical."

"We could use the desks to build the fort," Yanagi said. "If we put them against a wall, we'll have one side completely covered."

"That's a good idea. Everyone grab a desk."

Yukimura, Sanada, Yanagi, Marui, and Jackal began unstacking the desks from the wall and rearranging them on their sides in a semicircle as far away from Professor Reyna as possible. They were able to put up two rows of desks, one on top of the other, without the structure falling.

Smaller groups of students, mostly Gryffindors, began to copy them, though there were a handful of Slytherins who followed their lead. Fuji and the white-haired boy began building their own individual forts, which were much more compact with less holes. Oshitari from Slytherin paired up with the other Oshitari in Gryffindor to make a fort in the back.

There were still many stubborn students who refused to protect themselves if getting hit meant taking points from the other house. They were focusing on the wrong thing, Yukimura decided, but did not tell them. Their survival was not his concern.

Two minutes was not an awfully long amount of time. Professor Reyna did not announce when she started attacking—they heard it. A boy yelped and Professor Reyna said, "If you're hit, play dead. The paint changes color if you move. I can figure out which of you are the rotten liars this way."

"Quick, put your robes over the top," Yukimura said. "And stuff your ties into any holes."

Their pathetic attempt at a fort was small and cramped. They sat on the floor, huddled together; Yukimura was forced into Sanada's lap, and Marui was stretched across both Jackal and Yanagi.

"I can't feel my legs," Jackal said.

"Half my body is not touching solid ground," Marui said. "Suck it up."

"I didn't know Gryffindors whined so much," Sanada said.

"How long do you think this task will last?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura looked at the others. There was little light in their fort since the robes stretched over the hole on the top blocked out most of the light, but Yukimura could still make out their clueless faces. Professor Reyna didn't tell them how long they needed to protect themselves.

Suddenly and without warning, there was a loud thump on as a glob of paint impacted with the side of their fort. Several more spells hit them in shock succession— _thump, thump, thump!_

"We're hit, we're hit," Marui said dramatically.

"I'll hit you if you don't shut up," Jackal said.

"The fort is withstanding the force of the impact," Yukimura said. "That's a good thing."

They heard several more impacts on the wall behind them, but the white paint only dribbled down into the fort and did not touch any of them.

Professor Reyna moved on to the next group of the students.

After several long minutes, Professor Reyna said, "That's enough. You can all come out."

"Finally," Marui said, moving to stand up.

Yukimura grabbed his arm and stopped him. "You told us to treat you like the enemy," Yukimura said. "How can we trust you?"

Professor Reyna did the last thing Yukimura expected: she laughed, loud and sharp.

"She's bloody mad," Marui whispered.

Professor Reyna's laughter lasted for several seconds and no one dared speak. She said, "I've been teaching for twelve years and you're the first person to ask me that!"

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Marui asked.

"A very good thing—you may not be complete dunderheads after all," Professor Reyna said. "I promise not to attack you and I always keep my word. Trust is important in this classroom. I will not tolerate foolishness or liars. Now get this desks in order so I can do a roll call."

* * *

The only thing the first years talked about was their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. More specifically, they talked about Professor Reyna.

"I heard she only wears black."

"My brother said she almost killed a student once."

"Almost? I bet she has and covered it up."

"I heard a girl in Hufflepuff cried during class."

"We lost ten points on the first day!"

Yukimura was rather fond of their eccentric teacher and was disappointed when they had a proper lecture on werewolves later in the week that did not involve classroom demonstrations.

"Why would you _want_ a demonstration on werewolves?" Sanada asked him.

However, Yukimura could not focus solely on Defense Against the Dark Arts. There was much more to magic than waving your wand and saying a few silly words, and the first years were quickly becoming overwhelmed by their classes. There was so much to learn that muggle-borns were on equal footing with people like Yukimura and Sanada, who grew up surrounded by magic.

On Wednesday nights they went up the Astronomy Tower and looked at the sky through their telescopes, learning the names of stars and the movement of the planets.

Charms was taught by Professor Watanabe, the head of Hufflepuff, who wore mismatching robes and sat in peculiar positions as he lectured them on wand technique and magical theory. They spent entire lessons waving their wands in different patterns.

History of Magic was interesting, but the hardest to stay awake during. The professor was a ghost named Professor Binns, who hovered several inches off the ground, lecturing without writing anything on the board. Students were constantly asking how to spell names such as Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball, and Professor Binns would always reply, "Phonetically," then continue lecture. Yanagi leant his notes to Yukimura and Sanada after every class.

Slytherins had Herbology three times a week with Hufflepuff in the greenhouses behind the school where they learned about plants and fungi and their different uses. On the first day, everyone was assigned to groups of three. Sanada and Yanagi were put into a group with a girl from Hufflepuff, who looked horrified every time Sanada or Yanagi tried to talk to her. Yukimura was paired with Fuji from his house and a Hufflepuff named Shiraishi.

"Are we allowed to go into the seventh year greenhouses?" Shiraishi asked.

"No," their professor replied.

"Not even to look?"

" _No_."

"When are we going to work with dangerous plants?"

Yukimura and Fuji snickered into their hands while the rest of their classmates appeared horrified.

Professor Saitou, the head of Slytherin house, taught Transfiguration. He was an abnormally tall, awkward looking man who spoke so softly that students fought over who got to sit in the front row. Atobe picked up a chair from the third row and sat in front of the first row. Several other Ravenclaws eagerly copied him. Professor Saitou transfigured them a desk to write on.

Yukimura sat in the second row next to a skinny, pale boy from Ravenclaw with perfectly combed hair and glasses. His name was Yagyuu Hiroshi and he was the only one to change his match into a needle on the first day of class. No one else even managed to change the color or make the end pointy.

By the end of the week, Yukimura and Sanada did not need Akiteru's map to get to the Great Hall without getting lost. They filled their plates with potatoes, eggs, fruit, and croissants, and looked over their schedule for the day.

"We have double Potions with Ravenclaw," Yanagi said.

"The Headmaster is the Potions Master, right?" Yukimura asked.

"Substitute Headmaster," Yanagi corrected.

Yukimura remembered Professor Kurobe introducing himself with that title during the start-of-term feast. "What does that mean, though?"

"Akiteru said the Headmaster hasn't been here for years—not since he was a first year," Sanada said. "The Ministry of Magic had to appoint someone in his place and chose Kurobe."

"I'm looking forward to Potions," Yanagi said. "I've read all about it. You can do some amazing things with potions. Just the other night, I was reading about this potion called Felix Felicis, which grants the drinker unimaginable luck and success for a short time. I don't believe in luck, but the primary sources are rather interesting…"

As Yanagi spoke, the mail arrived. Nearly a hundred owls flew down from the ceiling and dropped letters and packages in front students. The first time the owls had arrived, Yanagi had been surprised and said he did not think so many wizards used owls for mail, which did not make sense to Yukimura because even a half-blood like Yanagi should know that wizards use owls to delivery mail.

Today, Yukimura's family owl dropped a small square package in front of him, took a croissant off his plate, and then flew off. Yukimura opened the package, which contained a letter from his sister and a batch of slightly burned chocolate-chip cookies.

"Emiko made me cookies. My little sister, she's nine," Yukimura said for Yanagi's benefit. "I wonder how they taste…"

"You shouldn't eat cookies for breakfast," Sanada said, but Yukimura ate one anyways. It was too crispy and a little burned, but it was not bad.

"Genichirou, Yanagi, do you want any?"

"Maybe later," Yanagi said.

Despite what he had just said, Sanada took one bite and made a face.

Yukimura laughed softly. Maybe the cookies were bad after all, but when he replied to her letter, he would say that they were delicious and that Sanada enjoyed them too. He wondered how his sister was doing without her brothers around.

Akiteru came over and tapped Sanada on the shoulder. "Hey, Gen, did you find a set of my robes in your bags?"

Sanada shook his head. "No."

"When did you lose them?" Yukimura asked.

"That's just the thing," Akiteru said, frowning, "I haven't seen them once and Mom said I didn't leave them at home." Akiteru shrugged, unbothered. "I'll ask Saito for a new set. I have Transfiguration right now anyways. I'll see you guys later."

They finished breakfast then headed down to the dungeons where the Ravenclaws were wandering around, unable to find their way to the Potions classroom. The Slytherins did not help them, but the Ravenclaws were smart enough to follow them through the twisting halls to the classroom.

The Potions room smelled heavily of smoke and off-putting herbs that stung Yukimura's nostrils and burned his throat. As Yukimura progressed into the room, he was met by several different smells. Some desks smelled sickly sweet while others smelled as though something had died. Along the back wall were shelves of jars containing the oddest things—curled up dead leaves, fowl orange liquid with floating eyes that blinked at Yukimura, full unicorn horns, and snake skin that seemed to move.

"To many students, Potions is their most difficult class and they struggle greatly," Professor Kurobe said. Sanada shifted uncomfortably next to Yukimura, who refused to be intimidated before they even began. "But if you work hard and are determined, you can surpass those with a natural affinity for this class. Potion making is an art, a science. Anyone can master it with enough practice and patience.

"For your first year, you will work in pairs. I will allow you to choose your partner, but I reserve the right to separate you later on. Sit next to your partner before I take roll."

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi looked at each other. Yukimura wondered if Professor Kurobe would allow the three of them to work together. Before he could ask, Yanagi said, "You two should work together."

"Are you sure?" Yukimura asked.

Yanagi nodded.

Sanada's shoulders relaxed when Yanagi stood to leave. He was probably glad that he did not have to ask random people to be his partner. Sanada was never good at asking strangers for things.

Yukimura smiled at Sanada and said, "I hope I won't hold you back."

"Even I can tell you're kidding," Sanada said. "We both know you'd never hold anyone back."

Yanagi partnered with a boy named Inui from Ravenclaw. Niou, the boy with white hair, and Yagyuu were partners. Nearly everyone else found partners within their own house. The Ravenclaws fought over who partnered with Atobe, but Akutagawa took the seat next to Atobe and their argument came to an abrupt end.

After finishing roll, Professor Kurobe went into lecture. He spent the entire class talking about the first potion they would be brewing and what each ingredient did—dried nettle, snake fangs, horned slugs, and porcupine quills. Yukimura thought his hand was going to fall off by the end of class, by which he had written a full scroll of notes. Sanada was rubbing his tired palm as they left the room while Yanagi was brimming with energy.

"That was brilliant," Yanagi said. "Professor Kurobe is brilliant. I can't wait to start brewing next week."

"I hope I can feel my hand by next week," Yukimura said, frowning. "I've never written so much in my entire life."


	4. Midnight Lessons

**Midnight Lessons**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

During their first week, Yukimura and Sanada found all of the hidden rooms in the common room as well as two more room that Akiteru had not included in his map and that many of the older students were surprised to learn existed. After they found all the common room had to offer, they began to explore the corridors after class.

The amount of time they spent wandering down twisted corridors and searching for hidden rooms was not enough for Yukimura, who began to explore by himself at night after Sanada and Yanagi forced themselves to study for class or sleep. Usually he came back to the common room before the prefects began patrolling, but there were several times when Yukimura was forced to hide behind thick curtains or make a break for the common room so he did not get caught. He did not want to be responsible for losing his house points, but he enjoyed his late night excursions and the secrets he uncovered too much to stop.

On the fifth floor, behind a tapestry of pureblood households, he found a circular room with large, comfortable chairs and several filled bookcases. On the fourth floor, there was a painting you could walk into, though Yukimura did nothing more than stick his arm in elbow-deep. He learned that the suits of armor on the second floor would point you to the bathrooms if you asked nicely, but the suits of armor on the fourth floor would try to stab you with their lances.

The oddest room he found was on the seventh floor corridor. He had been looking behind a statue when he heard prefects coming down the hall on their nightly patrol. Yukimura planned to hide behind the columns in the corner—he had done it before and knew he was small enough to squeeze behind them if he held his breath—but as he walked by the wall, there was a door he did not remember being there. The footsteps increased in volume and Yukimura, realizing he did not have much time before he was discovered out of bed, went inside the mysterious room.

Ducking into the small cramped closet, Yukimura coughed on the dusty air from the old cauldrons and dirty glass vials. After the prefects had passed and Yukimura deemed it safe to leave, he opened the door and found himself in the dungeons near the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He turned around to look at the door again, but there was no door behind him. He thought he was losing his mind.

Once in his room, he drew the curtains around his bed, lit a lamp, and pulled out Akiteru's map. Akiteru had drawn an arrow pointing to the room on seventh floor corridor and had written: _dueling room?_ Yukimura had checked the corridor before but there hadn't been a room where Akiteru said there was so Yukimura had assumed it was a mistake. Tonight, however, there had been a room, but it was not a dueling room like Akiteru had said.

"I'll have to ask him when I get the chance," Yukimura said to himself.

Sanada turned in his bed, mumbling in his sleep, and Yukimura decided to get some sleep as well.

* * *

On Monday morning before class, Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi checked the notice board in the common room for the new password (" _Coronella austriaca_ "). Below the new password was a flyer for dueling club:

 **DUELING CLUB** _  
(Third years and above.)_

 _Learn new offensive and defensive spells, and test your skills by dueling against other students!_

 _Interested students should contact Professor Reyna for more information._

"Why is it only third years and above?" Yukimura asked, frowning. "I was looking forward to dueling."

"Professor Reyna is in charge," Sanada said. "Akiteru said it was really intense and even a lot of third years can't keep up. Professor Reyna probably keeps the younger students out so they don't get hurt."

"Hmm. That's boring."

"Only you would think that not being attacked is boring, Seiichi."

"Flying lessons are the first weekend of October," Yanagi said, looking at another notice. "We have lessons with Ravenclaw."

Just like that, Yukimura forgot about dueling club. "Flying lessons?" he said excitedly. "How long are they? Do you think they'll let us keep a broom on grounds if we do really well?"

Sanada had also brightened up at the mention of flying. "I wonder what brooms they'll have us use."

"Cleansweeps, probably. The old ones are pretty cheap."

"Our first brooms were Cleansweeps."

"Yeah. They were good brooms."

"You've both flown before?" Yanagi asked, sounding impressed.

Yukimura nodded, eager to explain. "Genichirou and I live away from any muggles and our parents let us fly as long as we stayed by our houses. I have an old Nimbus—I got it for my birthday when I was nine—but I had to leave it at home since first years aren't allowed brooms. I don't even care about playing Quidditch, I just want to be able to fly on weekends."

"Quidditch?" Yanagi asked.

"Haven't you heard of it?"

Yanagi pointed to another flyer on the notice board.

 **SLYTHERIN HOUSE QUIDDITCH TEAM TRYOUTS  
** _NOW ACCEPTING FIRST YEARS!_

 _Tryouts will be held at noon on Saturday, September 28_ _th_ _in the Quidditch Pitch._

 _Participants should_ _not_ _bring a broom to tryouts, as brooms will be provided.  
The use of enhancing spells and potions is strictly prohibited and will result in disqualification. _

_Onlookers are welcomed._

At the bottom of the page was an enchanted picture of a Snitch that spiraled and zoomed from edge to edge.

"They're accepting first years?" Sanada asked, surprised. Yukimura was just as shocked.

"They don't normally do that?" Yanagi asked.

"No," Sanada said. "But Akiteru said our house hasn't won the House Quidditch Cup in nearly ten years now. Maybe they're desperate…"

"Or there was a policy change," Yanagi said.

"The three of us should tryout together," Yukimura said suddenly. "It will be fun."

"We've never played Quidditch before," Sanada said. "Unless you count tossing that old ball back and forth."

"But we know all the rules and we can both fly really well. Can you fly, Yanagi?"

Yanagi shook his head. "I've never touched a broom and I don't know how to play Quidditch either."

"Flying lessons are after tryouts," Sanada said. "He couldn't learn to fly in time."

Yanagi had quickly become one of his best friends and Yukimura wanted to play Quidditch with him and Sanada. It wouldn't be a big deal if they didn't make the team, but Yukimura felt as if he had to at least try since he was given the opportunity.

"Of course he can!" Yukimura said. "We could teach him how to fly and how to play Quidditch."

"The professors wouldn't allow it," Yanagi said. "We wouldn't have any way to get a broom, either."

"I know plenty of ways to get out of the castle and onto the grounds without being spotted. We could sneak to the Pitch, unlock the broom shed, and teach you everything you'd need to know by Saturday. Genichirou and I can practice as we teach you."

"What if we get detention? Or lose the house points?" Yanagi asked.

"Then we get detention and we'll earn the points back twofold!"

Yanagi stared at Yukimura, who smiled. Yanagi's silence meant he was having problems coming up with a solid argument against Yukimura's plan.

Sanada sighed and asked, "Can we at least get breakfast before you start planning like this?"

"We should eat before class," Yanagi agreed.

Yukimura hummed. "Alright, but I won't drop this. We're going to do this."

* * *

They ate breakfast at the Slytherin table and then went to the Gryffindor table where Marui and Jackal were sitting.

"One second," Marui said. He scarfed down the rest of his French toast then took a long drink from a cup.

"That was mine," Jackal said.

Marui patted Jackal on the shoulder and bounced to his feet. They made their way towards class. By the time they reached the Grand Staircase, Marui was talking about candy, as he often did.

"I bought an entire bag of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum from a fifth year—the gum changes color every few seconds! I can't wait to go to Hogsmeade. I heard we start going as third years."

Marui reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of gum as they walked up the stairs to the third floor. He blew a small red bubble that floated up above their heads then a larger blue one that floated down behind them.

"Gross," Niou muttered behind them, picking the bubble from his white hair.

"Sorry," Marui said, already blowing another even larger green bubble. He didn't sound sincere at all. In fact, it sounded like he was trying not to laugh, his voice thin and stretched as he smiled.

"No, you're not."

Marui sucked the bubble back into his mouth and grinned. "You caught me," he said then turned back around.

"Do you two not get along?" Yanagi asked.

"Never talked to him before in my life," Marui said. "It's just that he's a Slytherin. I don't like Slytherins."

"We're Slytherins," Sanada said.

"You guys are different," Jackal said.

"Yeah, what Jackal said," Marui said. "The rest of your house is full of jerks. They don't talk to anyone from the other houses unless it's to call them a you-know-what or to talk down to them. It was the same way when my parents went here."

"Genichirou's brother has friends in every house, and Fuji is friends with a lot of Hufflepuffs," Yukimura said. Marui looked at Yukimura expectedly, waiting for more names, but Yukimura could not come up with another example of a Slytherin that was friendly to people from other houses. Yukimura frowned. "I'm sure there are others."

"Gryffindors don't make the effort to talk to Slytherins either," Yanagi pointed out.

"Why would we want to if you guys are just going to treat us like dragon dung?" Marui asked. "Luckily we only have Defense Against the Dark Arts and Astronomy together or I think there'd be a bloodbath by the end of the year."

Yukimura continued to frown. His parents had both been in Ravenclaw, but Sanada's entire family was Slytherin. He grew up learning that Slytherin was a great house that produced strong witches and wizards. Why was there a feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin anyways? It didn't make sense to him.

"I've been meaning to ask," Yukimura said. "Can first years try out for your house Quidditch team?"

Marui shrugged. "Dunno. Haven't checked the notice board."

"Have you looked, Jackal?"

"I don't even know what Quidditch is," Jackal said.

"Are you a muggle-born?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura and Sanada turned to stare at the Gryffindor. Jackal turned red at the sudden attention.

"Uh, yeah, I am," he said, nodding awkwardly. He looked nervously at Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi, who was also watching Yukimura and Sanada's reactions.

Yukimura smiled. "Like I said on the train, that doesn't matter." Sanada nodded in agreement.

"It doesn't matter," Yanagi said quietly, like something else entirely was on his mind.

Jackal looked a bit relieved, though he was not completely at ease. Yukimura could not blame especially after his poor first impression on the train and what Marui just told them about how Gryffindors view Slytherins. Marui changed the topic back to candy, which lightened the mood.

They took their seats in Defense Against the Dark Arts. They knew their professor had arrived when the door slammed shut and Marui's gum shot out of his mouth and into the garbage.

"No gum, Marui!" she scolded as she walked past at a frightening pace towards the front of the room. "The next time I have to remind you, I'm taking points."

They had been learning about werewolves. According to older students, she would teach a dark creature then a spell, a creature, a spell. Last class she said they had finished werewolves. If what the upperclassmen said was true, then they were learning a spell today. Yukimura sat anxiously on the edge of his seat, eager to learn something new.

"Hand in your homework on werewolves and get to your feet—we're learning a new spell today," Professor Reyna ordered. With a wave of her wand, everyone's scrolls floated up and piled neatly on her desk. "Everyone, out of the way, to the back of the room."

Yukimura smiled as they hurried to the back of the room.

Professor Reyna waved her wand again and the desks began to move, sliding into one another. As she rearranged the desks, she asked, "Who can tell me something about the Wand-Lighting Charm?"

Yanagi spoke without being called on (Professor Reyna did not call on people, she waited for someone with the confidence to speak): "To illuminate the end of a wand, the caster must call out the incantation _Lumos_. If correctly incanted, the end of the wand will then illuminate and cast light in the immediate vicinity of the caster. It can also be used to illuminate unseen entrances."

"Word for word out of the book, but there's nothing wrong with that. Five points to Slytherin."

The desks continued to slide around the room, rearranging and banging loudly into one another.

"Can anyone think of any uses for it?" Professor Reyna asked.

"To light the way," Marui said.

"Besides the glaringly obvious."

"To blind your opponent?" Fuji suggested.

"Good, you're thinking outside of the box! But unfortunately, this charm is not that powerful. The charm to summon sunlight would work better for blinding. Any other ideas?"

"Are some dark creatures sensitive to light?" a girl from Gryffindor said.

"Very good. We will not talk about any such creatures this year, but we will in the future."

The last desk slid into place. Professor Reyna had created a small maze out of their desks with dead ends and paths along the wall. Professor Reyna stood on the same side of the maze as them.

"I want everyone to repeat the incantation on three," she said. "Remember, it's _Lumos_. One, two—"

" _Lumos_ ," the class echoed.

"Again." The class repeated to incantation. Professor Reyna nodded, as close to pleased as she could be with the class. "Enunciation is key as the wand movement is relatively simple. You should have covered the movement already in Charms. It's a single loop, like so."

She demonstrated and had each of them come forward and show her their wand movement. She was surprisingly patient with those who did it incorrectly, helping them until they did it perfectly. Eventually, she had gone through everyone in class.

"I want everyone to line up behind where I am standing. If you are afraid of the dark, now is your time to overcome your fear." She waved her wand and the curtains closed and the lights on the chandelier disappeared. The room was pitch black. Sanada shifted anxiously besides Yukimura.

She lit her wand and began to move through the maze of desks. She quickly finished the maze without hitting a dead end. Yukimura and the other students realized why she had moved the desks—it was an obstacle course.

"The counter-charm to extinguish the light is _Nox."_ The light at the end of her wand disappeared, leaving them in darkness."First student, go."

Yukimura did not know who was first in line until he heard Oshitari say, " _Lumos_ ," and a light appeared on the tip of his wand. It was much smaller than Professor Reyna's and not nearly as bright. Oshitari slowly made his way through the maze. Several times, his light went out, and he had to recast the spell. After nearly four minutes, he had made it through and cast the counter-charm.

One by one, students went through the maze. Some struggled to light their wand and very few made it through the maze without having to recast the charm at least once. Jackal had to recast as many times as Oshitari. Marui and Fuji had to recast twice. Yanagi and Niou made it through with just one recast. Sanada nearly made it through without having to recast, but stubbed his toe on a desk corner and lost focus, his light extinguishing. Yukimura managed to make it to the end of the maze without recasting, though his light had dimmed significantly.

It was harder than they thought to hold a charm and focus on another task at the same time. Yukimura assumed that was the point of the exercise.

When the last student had finished, they ran the maze again in the other direction and then put their desks back into place. As they left the room, Professor Reyna shouted at them, "Next class, I'll be adding hazards to your path. Practice before then or you'll end up in the Hospital Wing with a busted ankle."

In the corridor, Yukimura turned to Sanada and Yanagi and said, "You know, it would be easy to get across the grounds at night now."

"He's never going to give up," Sanada said.

"It's true, I won't. You're my friend and I want to play Quidditch with you."

Yanagi smiled and Yukimura knew he had won.

"Alright," Yanagi said. "Teach me to fly."

* * *

After everyone had gone to sleep and the common room was empty, the three left the common room. They stuck close to the walls and went slowly, peering around corners for prefects, or ghosts, or worse, Peeves the poltergeist, who they had yet to encounter but had heard horrible stories about.

They made it out of the dungeons without getting caught, but Yukimura knew the next part was the hard part. They had to get to the other side of the castle and out onto the grounds, and the only way there was through a major corridor.

"You have dragon footsteps," Yukimura whispered to Sanada. They were crouched at the top of the grand staircase that led out of the dungeon.

"I can't help it," Sanada replied, blushing.

"It's alright," Yanagi said. "My robes are making noise."

"Let's go," Yukimura said suddenly.

They dashed across the open room and down a small, narrow hallway without stopping. Yukimura led them through the castle. They did not see a single prefect, though a stray cat managed to make them jump in surprise. For a moment, Yukimura thought Sanada was startled enough to jinx the poor thing.

Out on the grounds, they fumbled through the dark for several minutes before Yanagi thought it was safe enough to light their wands. The castle was behind their backs and the silhouette of the Quidditch Pitch was in front of them.

They quickly made their way to the Pitch, circling it in search of the broom shed. They found the building after several minutes; it was small and old with several cracked, dirty windows and shingles missing from the roof.

Sanada and Yanagi extinguished their wands but Yukimura kept his lit.

Sanada tugged on the heavy iron lock on the door. "We can't get in."

"We could break a window," Yukimura said.

"We do not need to break anything," Yanagi said. "Sanada, could you move?" Yanagi stepped forward and pointed his wand at the lock. " _Alohomora_." The lock opened and fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

"What spell was that?" Sanada asked.

"The Unlocking Charm. I read about it in a book."

"You're really smart, aren't you?" Yukimura asked.

"I don't know how to respond to that."

Yukimura laughed and Sanada smiled.

They went inside. There were several barrels of old brooms with tattered ends. Newer brooms were hung on the wall. The small shed smelled like fresh cut grass and dirt.

Yukimura took a broom out of the barrel, grasping it tightly in his hand. It was different from his broom at home, cheaper, but it looked like it would fly. He took out two more brooms, one for each of them, and turned to his friends.

"I think I found the Quidditch balls," Sanada said, pulling a small chest out from a shelf. He opened it, revealing a large red ball, two round black balls strapped down, and a tiny golden ball kept under a lock. "This is it."

Yukimura led the way to the Pitch, carrying the brooms and his lit wand, and Sanada and Yanagi carried the chest several feet behind him. The Quidditch Pitch had hundreds of seats raised in the stands around a grassy oval field. At either end of the Pitch were three golden poles with hoops on the end standing at various heights.

They set down the chest in the center of the Pitch. Yukimura picked up the large red ball, surprised at how light it was.

"This is the Quaffle," Yukimura said. He tossed it to Yanagi, who rolled it in his hands. "Each team has three people called Chasers that handle the Quaffle. They toss it back and forth and try to get it into the hoops. A goal with a Quaffle is worth ten points."

"There's the Keeper," Sanada said.

"Right." Yukimura nodded. "The Keeper flies in front of the goalposts to stop Chasers from scoring."

Sanada picked up a small bat. "This is a Beater's bat. Beater's use it to hit Bludgers—those black balls. Beater's protect the Chasers while aiming to hit opponents."

"I don't think we should mess with the Bludgers since they're enchanted to move around," Yukimura said. Sanada nodded in agreement and put the bat back.

"What about the golden ball?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura smiled. "That's the Golden Snitch. It's crazy fast. Seekers spend the entire game trying to catch it. The game doesn't end until it's caught. You get one-hundred and fifty points for it."

"So you don't necessarily win if you catch the Snitch, then," Yanagi said.

"You usually do," Yukimura answered, "but not always."

Yanagi nodded. He asked, "What do you want to play?"

Yukimura held his hands up and Yanagi tossed the Quaffle back to him. "I think I'll be a Chaser. What do you think sounds interesting, Yanagi?"

"Chaser sounds the simplest." Yukimura tossed the Quaffle back to Yanagi, who tossed it to Sanada.

Yukimura smiled. "I think the three of us should tryout as Chasers. That way, if we all made the team, we'd be playing together. We need to practice flying first, though."

Sanada nodded in agreement.

Within half an hour, Yanagi had taken the sky and was circling the Pitch with Yukimura and Sanada.

After two hours, they touched down to the ground, passing the Quaffle to get a feel for it as they returned to the broom shed. It was difficult to catch while holding a broom, but they quickly adapted.

"What if one of us doesn't make the team?" Yanagi asked.

"We'll make the team," Yukimura said confidently. When the Quaffle made it around to Yukimura again, he put it back into the chest.


	5. Three Chasers

**Three Chasers**

 _Yanagi Renji_

Every night for a week, they snuck out to the grounds, stole brooms from the broom shed, and flew around the Pitch with no light to guide them. Yanagi enjoyed the weightlessness of flying and the rush of the air against his face. He was quickly on par with both Sanada and Yukimura, who had been flying on broomsticks since they were four years old. When Yukimura complimented Yanagi, he claimed he merely had good teachers, though he obviously had a natural talent for flying.

After three nights of flying practice, they began to practice more seriously with a Quaffle, passing it back and forth and aiming for the goalposts. Yanagi was the best at passing, Sanada at catching, and Yukimura at scoring. Individually, their skills were nothing to brag about, but together they made a half decent set of Chasers according to Yukimura, who knew much more about Quidditch than Yanagi.

The week of sneaking out, breaking the rules, and midnight flying lessons was by far the best week of Yanagi's life. He had never had friends to do such things with before coming to Hogwarts and meeting Yukimura and Sanada.

Yanagi, Sanada, and Yukimura woke up early on Saturday morning for breakfast. The tryouts for the Slytherin team started at noon, but they heard that the other houses were going before them starting at nine with Gryffindor. Yukimura insisted they go and watch.

It was Saturday morning and not many students were awake for breakfast. The students who were awake were in various states of dress. Yanagi, Sanada, and Yukimura sat by themselves at the end of the nearly empty Slytherin table and filled their plates with food. Despite his nerves, which tickled his stomach and jarred his thoughts, Yanagi managed to eat a surprising amount of food; he knew he would need his energy for tryouts. He had no doubt gained weight since coming to school. His mother would never have to worry about him being too skinny ever again.

At least he was not the only one who was nervous. Sanada had heavy, dark circles under his eyes and had struggled with his shoes earlier in the morning, leading Yanagi to believe he had not gotten a wink of sleep last night. Sanada was also more irritated by Yukimura's gentle pestering, which was most definitely odd because Sanada typically had a high tolerance for Yukimura, who was seemingly unphased by the upcoming tryouts.

The owls swooped down in fewer numbers than usual to deliver the morning mail. A small owl belonging to the school dropped a folded up newspaper in front of Yanagi, who reached into his pocket for a bronze knut, which he then placed into a small pouch on the owl's leg. The owl pecked at Yanagi's toast then flew off.

"You subscribed to the _Daily Prophet_?" Yukimura asked as he watched Yanagi unfold the newspaper. "When did you do that?"

"This past week," Yanagi said. "I saw a notice in the common room that said it only costs a knut for each paper. This is the first time it's come."

Sanada frowned. "The _Prophet_ is really biased."

Yanagi was not bothered. He had heard that as well. "It may stretch the truth from time to time, but every lie has some truth behind it. Besides, it's a major source of information for current issues in the magical world."

Yanagi opened to the middle of the newspaper. The _Daily Prophet_ was the most widely distributed wizard newspaper in the area and Yanagi was beginning to understand why. The _Prophet_ published daily and had assorted topics from potion brewing and "one hundred uses for household spells!" to wanted dark wizards and gossip on famous Quidditch players. No topic was too obscure for the _Prophet_.

Yukimura curiously read the article listings on the first page. He asked, "Yanagi, can you had me the Society Page? It should be page six."

Yanagi nodded and handed him the sixth page of the paper. Yukimura quickly skimmed the article, making small noises as he read.

"Genichirou, did you know Atobe is the son of the owner of the _Prophet_?" Yukimura asked conversely.

"We met the editor and his name wasn't Atobe," Sanada said, confused.

"Not the editor, the owner."

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there's a difference."

Yukimura read the article for another minute then handed the page back to Yanagi. The large bold heading read at the top of the Society Page read:

 _ **PROPHET**_ **OWNER'S SON ARRIVES AT HOGWARTS**

Next to a large block of text was a moving portrait of an attractive, well-dressed family. A thin, broad-shouldered man with wire glasses stood next to a small, mousy woman that had jewels in her tied-up hair. Standing in front of the two was Atobe Keigo from Ravenclaw, though he looked to be a year or two younger in the photograph. The woman said something that the picture did not capture, causing the man to laugh and Atobe to smile. They looked like a proper, dignified family with practiced smiles and perfectly straight teeth.

"I wonder what spell they use to make the pictures move," Yanagi said with a curious expression. "It's quite strange to see."

"Most magical pictures move," Yukimura said. He frowned slightly and Yanagi knew what he was going to ask before the words came out of his mouth— _but I thought you were a half-blood?_

Yanagi saved them both time and said, "My parents."

Yukimura nodded curtly.

Sanada paid them no mind and continued to dip his toast into his sunny side eggs, eyeing his grapefruit with the same great intensity he had when he put his pants on backwards earlier that morning.

Yukimura looked at Sanada and smiled. "Nervous?" he asked.

"No," Sanada said, though that was obviously a lie.

"You should eat more," Yukimura said. He shoveled what was left of his breakfast onto Sanada's plate.

"You're like my mother," Sanada grumbled, but ate the food nonetheless.

"Someone has to be. Unless Yanagi would like to take over."

"I'll pass," Yanagi said.

* * *

They made it to the Quidditch Pitch at the tail end of Gryffindor's tryouts. They climbed into the stands and sat with several other onlookers. There did not appear to be any first years trying out for the Gryffindor team, but Yanagi spotted several first years in the stands that he recognized—Tezuka from Hufflepuff, and Atobe and Akutagawa from Ravenclaw.

As the Gryffindors cleared the Pitch, a few more than a dozen Hufflepuffs took over, Tezuka among them.

"We can't hear them," Yukimura said, sounding disappointed.

"You two both knew Tezuka before Hogwarts, correct?" Yanagi asked.

Sanada nodded. "We went to school together."

"The Hawkridge Institute for young witches and wizards," Yukimura said. "It's a private institute, an alternative to muggle education or magical homeschooling. We were classmates for years, but eventually Tezuka transferred to a larger school that allowed students to play Quidditch."

"Then it would be safe to assume that Tezuka knows what he's doing," Yanagi said.

"He doesn't just know how to fly," Sanada said. "He's good at it. He was one of the best flyers at our school—although Seiichi was better."

"I wouldn't say that," Yukimura said but his tone suggested otherwise.

The Hufflepuffs flew several laps around the Pitch then began to spread out. There was only one Seeker trying out, an older girl who appeared to be a returning player, but there were four Beaters, two Keepers, and five Chasers. The Seeker played as a Chaser, allowing two teams to go against one another. Tezuka was trying out as a Chaser.

Even Yanagi could tell that Tezuka was extremely skilled for a first year. He remained calm and level-headed, passing the Quaffle where it needed to go and scoring when he could without being reckless. He was steadily racking up points for his team. Soon the score was fifty-zero.

"He is talented," Yanagi said.

The opposing Beaters seemed to be conspiring together, with their heads bowed close to each other and nasty expressions on their faces. Yanagi felt uneasy upon seeing those expressions.

When the Beater flew in front of the Bludger, instead of knocking it away from the Chasers, they sent it straight to one, to Tezuka, their own teammate, who did not realize the Bludger's path until it was too late. The ball slammed into him with enough force to knock Tezuka off path and for a moment, Yanagi thought he would fall off his broom, but Tezuka stayed in the air, clutching his elbow.

Yukimura remained strangely calm in the face of violence. Sanada tensed next to him, his eyes widening considerably.

"That was on purpose," Sanada said.

"I know," Yukimura said darkly.

Yanagi swallowed thickly, remaining silent. Quidditch was more dangerous than he thought.

The team captain loudly scolded the Beater responsible, sent him to do laps around the Pitch, and called an end to tryouts. Tezuka flew down to the bottom of the Pitch where several others surrounded him, fussing over him. Two younger boys physically restrained the older girl that tried out for Seeker as she shouted vehemently at the guilty Beater flying around the Pitch.

"I wonder if he's hurt," Yanagi said.

"He better not be," Sanada said.

"Less competition if he is," Yukimura said. "Though I hope it's nothing serious…"

The Hufflepuffs left the Pitch, ending their tryouts early—the Beater flying around the Pitch landed after his teammates had cleared the area—but the Ravenclaws waited until their scheduled time at eleven to begin their tryouts, which was smart because several other students showed up while they waited. Though when the Ravenclaws entered the Pitch, Atobe and Akutagawa were still the only first years. (Yanagi nearly mistook a short blond girl with dark skin for a first year then quickly realized that everyone was listening to her and she was in fact the team captain.)

Akutagawa did not seem to know the rules—he caught the Quaffle and looked around, confused about what to do, and then later scored for the opposing team—but he was a talented flyer. He was a fast, with sharp turns and dives that not even Atobe could keep up with. He was able to snake between the goalposts, but he was shouted at for not paying attention to the actual game.

Then there was Atobe, who was quite skilled himself. He was the youngest Chaser on his team, but he took charge and called all of the shoots and no one seemed to question him. Even if they had, they could not doubt him when he more than tripled their opponents' score.

Yanagi would be more surprised if the two did not make the team than if they did.

It did not occur to Yanagi that the end of the Ravenclaw tryouts meant the beginning of the Slytherin tryouts until the Slytherins in the stands began to head down to the center of the Pitch. His heart raced in his chest and his mind hurried to remember the rules and many fouls that Yukimura and Sanada had taught him at odd hours of the night.

His panic must have been noticeable because Yukimura smiled at him in a way that Yanagi thought was reserved for Sanada.

"You'll be fine," Yukimura said confidentially.

Yukimura's smile and natural confidence calmed him.

Everyone trying out was given the same, old brooms from the broom shed so that no one had an advantage. Little did the captain know, Yanagi, Sanada, and Yukimura had spent the last week flying those brooms.

Yanagi mounted his broom and pushed up, taking to the sky. The air rushed past his ears, the sun was warm on his skin, and he could see Yukimura and Sanada to his right.

They tossed the Quaffle back and forth as they flew from one end of the Pitch to the other. When they closed in the goals where the Keeper was flying, Yukimura scored. They repeated this several times, doing different passes from different heights and speeds, each of them scoring twice before the captain told them he'd seen enough.

Yanagi had been so preoccupied coming up with worst-case scenarios—falling off his broom and no one bothering to catch him was the worst one that came to mind—that he hadn't even thought of best-case scenarios.

This was the best-case scenario.

They only dropped the Quaffle once and they were able to dodge every Bludger the Beaters sent there way, though Yanagi had a close call with the last one, which skimmed the twigs on his broomstick.

At the end of tryouts, they landed and dismounted their brooms. The captain called them together and began to call out positions, having already made his decision—Keeper, Seeker, Beaters, then—

"Chasers and the only new members this year," the captain said. "Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichirou, and Yanagi Renji."

Yukimura smiled, Sanada gripped his broom so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and Yanagi could not believe that he had made the team without having flown before a week ago.

"But before we make you official members of the team, I need to ask you something important," the captain said, eyeing them. "Are you newbie Chasers mud-bloods?"

Yanagi suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

He had read about the word in textbooks and heard it spat from the mouths of older students in the Slytherin common room. It meant dirty blood. Common blood. It was a disgusting term used by disgusting people, but so many Slytherins, so many pure-bloods said it with ease. Yanagi had never heard Yukimura or Sanada use the word.

"I'm a pure-blood," Yukimura said, slowly, obviously put-off by the captain's question and choice of words. "So is Genichirou."

"We know Sanada—you're _his_ brother, aren't you? _"_ one of them said, grinning maliciously.

"Wouldn't call him a pure-blood," another said. "Though I could say something about his blood…"

Sanada tightened his hand around his broom and inhaled sharply. Yanagi did not know what that was about, and he had the feeling he was not close enough to Sanada to ask.

"Yanagi is a half-blood," Yukimura finished. He looked like he was fighting back the urge to say something.

The older students turned to Yanagi, who felt as though falling off his broom would be better than this. One of them asked, "Was one of your parents a muggle?"

"No," Yanagi was quick to answer. "They both have magic."

The older students seemed happy with that. Yanagi was thankful they did not prod for more details.

"Then you're on the team," the captain said.

Yukimura did not smile at his teammates. After several seconds, he looked at Sanada and Yanagi, and smiled at them. Yanagi, while happy to have made the team, had to force his smile.

* * *

The team had a late lunch in the Great Hall, but Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi sat by themselves. Yukimura was ecstatic about making the team and even Sanada was smiling more than usual.

Yanagi listened to their animated conversation but did not jump in, his fish and chips going cold on his plate. Yanagi did not want to eat, or talk about their blood-purist teammates. He was thankful Yukimura and Sanada chose not to talk about it as well. However, that meant Yanagi could not ask about what their new teammates were saying about Sanada.

Marui and Jackal came over to ask how tryouts went.

"We all made the team," Yukimura said with a brilliant smile.

"Congratulations!" Marui said. He clapped Sanada on the back, nearly causing the boy to choke, or point his wand at the redhead. "Jackal and I found the passage to the kitchens—we followed a fourth year. We should grab some butterbeers and celebrate."

"You found where the kitchens are?" Yukimura asked, sounding surprised. "You'll have to show me."

"You want to go now?" Marui asked.

"We have Charms homework," Sanada said.

"And Astronomy," Yanagi said.

Jackal nudged Marui with his elbow and said, "We have Herbology to finish."

Marui groaned. "Yeah, okay. Next time, though?"

"Next time," Yukimura promised.

"I hate Herbology," Marui muttered as Jackal and he left the Slytherin table.

The three Slytherins finished their lunch quickly after and headed down to the dungeons. They had long since memorized the complicated path to the common room and no longer got lost in the dungeons. But today, Yanagi's mind was elsewhere and he would have missed a right turn if Sanada had not grabbed his elbow and steered him in the right direction.

"Yanagi, are you alright?" Yukimura asked. "You haven't talked much since tryouts and didn't eat anything at lunch. Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing?"

Not only was Yukimura looking at him with concern, but so was Sanada. Sanada never looked at anyone with concern except for Yukimura. They honestly cared about him. They thought of him as their friend.

Yanagi could not keep it a secret any longer. He had to tell them.

"Would you two really be able to team up with a mud-blood?" Yanagi asked.

"Don't say that word," Sanada said, turning his head, as if checking to see if anyone was around to hear. "It's a bad word. Don't you know that?"

Yukimura frowned. "Yanagi, what's going on?"

Yanagi took in a deep breath. It did not calm him like he had hoped it would.

"I have something to admit," he said quietly. "When I met you on the train, I said I was a half-blood. And again after tryouts, I said my parents had magic. I lied."

"Then what are you?" Yukimura looked confused. He obviously did not understand what Yanagi was trying to say.

"You introduced yourself and Sanada as pure-bloods," Yanagi said quickly, flustered. He could feel himself beginning to panic.

What if Yukimura and Sanada hated him when they found out? Yanagi would lose the only friends he ever had. But could he really be their friend without telling them his secret? Would the pure-bloods conspire to torture him, to make it so he never had a peaceful day at Hogwarts? The other houses hated Slytherin. If his own house began to hate him, he would have no place at all.

"I read all about politics in the magical word before coming here and I knew some pure-bloods only associated with other pure-bloods. I couldn't lie and say I was a pure-blood, you wouldn't recognize my name, so I said I was a half-blood instead."

"Yanagi, what are you trying to say?" Yukimura asked in a slow, calm voice.

"I'm a muggle-born."

Silence hung in the air.

Yanagi wanted to disappear.

"So?" Sanada said after a moment. His eyebrows were pinched together in confusion. "Is that a big deal?"

"I—" Yanagi found himself at a loss for words. "I lied to you. I told you I was a half-blood."

"You lied because of something I said, didn't you?" Yukimura asked. "When we met, I said we were pure-bloods, like that was important to us."

Yanagi nodded. He could not meet their eyes. "I could have left the compartment instead of lying, but I… I did not know how you would treat me if you found out I'm a muggle-born. I was afraid that you might tell others when we got to school and that they might hate me too. So I lied."

Yukimura looked uncomfortable. Yanagi knew he would be. Wouldn't a pure-blood be upset to learn they had lived a muggle-born for so long without knowing?

"If you are upset with me, I can ask a prefect for a room change," Yanagi said. He knew he must have sounded miserable. He felt miserable. "I can quit the Quidditch team and—"

"No!" Yukimura said quickly. " _No._ I'm just mad with myself. I didn't know that introducing myself as pure-blood could affect people like that. I never thought about it. I was raised that way. I never questioned it."

"I never corrected you," Sanada said to Yukimura.

"We're sorry."

"You're not mad at me for lying?" Yanagi asked. "Or for being a muggle-born?"

Yukimura shook his head. "That doesn't matter. We're the ones who put you in a position where you had to lie. It's our fault, not yours."

"You're our friend," Sanada said. "Being a muggle-born doesn't change that."

Yanagi felt so relieved that he did not know what to say. He felt as if he may cry. He had carried on the lie by himself for nearly a month. He had lied to the only two friends he had at this school. Now, he didn't need to lie to them anymore.

"All I ask is that you don't tell anyone," Yanagi said. "Especially the other Slytherins. I know that blood purists are rare now, and most people in our house aren't like that, but the few that are…" Yanagi trailed off. He knew that Yukimura and Sanada would know more about that than he did.

Yukimura nodded, looking serious and determined. "I won't tell, promise."

"Me neither," Sanada said with the same intensity.

Yanagi nodded.

For a brief moment, they were silent. Then, smiling easily, Yukimura grabbed Yanagi by the arm and began walking again. He said, "I have to teach you Exploding Snap. Do muggles know any good card games?"

"Have you ever played go-fish?"

"What's that?"

"You don't know what go-fish is?"

"No." Yukimura looked at Yanagi with large, curious eyes and a warm smile. "Does it involve real fish?"

Yanagi smiled and explained that no, it did not involved real fish. He walked closely to Yukimura the entire way to the common room with Sanada several feet behind. They celebrated making the team with the special sweets Yukimura kept hidden away in his trunk. They finished their Charms and Astronomy homework together before playing Exploding Snap until dinner.

Nothing had changed and Yanagi was never more thankful for his friends.


	6. Seventh Floor Corridor

**Seventh Floor Corridor**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

The leaves changed color when autumn came. Soon the grounds were a beautiful collage of deep crimson reds and earthy browns, and the Whomping Willow had shaken off the last of its leaves. Giant pumpkins sprouted from the ground near the empty cabin at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Students began to wear scarves on their way to the greenhouses for Herbology, holding their robes tightly across their chests as they walked against the chilling wind. Delicious apple cider was being served with every meal and Yukimura thought apples might spring from his ears if he drank anymore, but he continued to drink it anyways.

The initial shock of first years making the house teams disappeared with time. Older students no longer eyed the Slytherin trio when they walked into the common room and the tin of cookies sent as congratulations by Yukimura's parents lay empty in their dorm room.

Atobe and Akutagawa had made the Ravenclaw team as Chasers. Atobe became somewhat like a celebrity and happily stole the limelight, as if he needed the attention to survive. It was rather annoying and Yukimura was thankful when it finally ended. Tezuka did not make the Hufflepuff team, no doubt due to the incident with the Beaters during tryouts, and Sanada was adamant that Tezuka should have made the team.

"He's better than everyone else who tried out," Sanada said with a bitter look.

"Better than everyone else who tried out in his house," Yukimura corrected.

"That's what I meant."

Yukimura and Sanada's brooms came through the owl post several days after tryouts. On each of their brooms, there was a note from Professor Kurobe with strict instructions to keep their brooms in the broom shed and to not show them to any other first years. The brooms were both slick with dark wooden handles and long trails of neat, straight twigs, though they were different models.

Yukimura had an old Nimbus, a fast but light broom that swayed in the wind if the rider was not careful, while Sanada had a Thunderstruck, a sturdy broom with fast acceleration but a lower top speed than Yukimura's Nimbus. Yanagi picked a broom from the broom shed and made it his own—an old, but durable Cleansweep.

The results from tryouts had just been announced, but their first match of the season was fast approaching. Quidditch practice took up more time than Yukimura had expected, but he did not mind the long afternoons spent practicing catching and dives on the Quidditch Pitch, though their teammates were far from perfect. In fact, they were intolerable at times with the way they spoke about muggle-borns and the other houses. Yukimura never spoke against them because if he was kicked off the team, Sanada and Yanagi would surely quit as well, and both of them loved Quidditch.

On their days off from practice, the three of them diligently studied for their classes. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons they met with Yagyuu in the library to study for Transfiguration. Sometimes Niou joined them. On those rare occasions, Niou sat silently nearby, sucking on sour Sugar Quills and reading from thick, old books that smelled like mold. Yukimura tried to be friendly and talk to him, but Niou remained stubbornly silent. Yukimura was not deterred. Eventually, Niou began to respond and gave the occasional, but very helpful, hint on transfiguring their rubber balls into pincushions (they lost points if they still bounced).

One morning, when Yukimura was by himself, he found Akiteru hunched over a complex looking book in the common room. Fifth years had important tests at the end of the year and Akiteru spent most of his time studying in the library. This was the first time Yukimura had the chance to talk to him alone in quite some time.

"Do you have a minute to talk?" Yukimura asked.

"I've always got a minute for you, Seiichi. What's up?"

"I have a question and I was wondering if you could help."

Yukimura pulled out Akiteru's map and spread it out on the table in front of them. Yukimura pointed to the seventh floor corridor where Akiteru had written _dueling room?_

"I checked and there wasn't a dueling room," Yukimura said. "At first, I didn't find anything, but then I found a closet. When I opened the door to leave, I was down in the dungeons."

Akiteru grinned. "I was wondering when you'd ask about that. I've only ever found the room once."

Once? How can a room appear only once? Yukimura had too many questions. He asked, "When did you see it?"

"I was studying for my Defense Against the Dark Arts final during third year and all the rooms in the common room were being used. I was wandering around, looking for a place to practice spells, and the room appeared."

"That's odd," Yukimura said, frowning.

"This castle is infused with magic. Nothing is ever _odd_."

Yukimura pocketed the map before anyone came by. He thanked Akiteru for his time then retreated to the bedroom where Sanada and Yanagi were getting ready for the day.

"You look like you're going to get into trouble," Sanada said.

"I do not." Yukimura turned to Yanagi. "Do I look like I'm about to get into trouble to you?"

"You do look slightly more mischievous than usual," Yanagi said with a gentle, teasing smile.

"If you say so," Yukimura said. "Now hurry up. We should eat before Herbology."

* * *

There were seven greenhouses located on school grounds behind the castle. Each had statues of long, serpentine dragons running along the peaked roofs. Most held exotic and magical plants, though some had sectioned off areas with desks and chalkboards where class could be taught.

As first years, they spent all their time in Greenhouse One, which smelled strongly of dung and dirt and was horribly humid—Yukimura always left with his hair frizzed. Yukimura tried several times to get into the other greenhouses, but he was not successful. Simple unlocking charms like _Alohomora_ did not work. His Herbology partners Fuji and Shiraishi, who had a similar love of the subject, also said that they too had been unable to access the other greenhouses.

Their Herbology professor was a stumpy, fat man with a long gray beard and hands with skin thicker than dragon-hide gloves. Professor Vega paced the greenhouse floor (though his walk looked more like a baby house elf's waddle) as he lectured them on the Fire-Making Spell and stroked his beard, which had bits of leaves and flowers tangled into it.

"The Fire-Making Spell is very useful under the right conditions," Professor Vega said. His face looked like a Mandrake, shriveled and permanently grumpy. "However, the ability to produce fire with the flick of a wand can be dangerous to your fellow students and worse, your garden."

Yukimura, Fuji, and Shiraishi smiled at their professor's perverse sense of humor.

"Today, we will be burning dead, withered plants that would poison our compost. Fire is the only way to dispose of them. At each workstation, I've placed several pots with dead plants and a bucket of water. If one of your group mate's spell becomes too unruly, merely dump the water on their wand to extinguish the flames."

Yukimura, Fuji, and Shiraishi decided that Shiraishi would try the spell first since he was quite skilled at Charms, then Fuji would go, and finally Yukimura. Fuji held the bucket of water and said, "I promise not to let you burn to death," with a pleasant smile.

Shiraishi flashed the Slytherin a grin. "I appreciate it." He rolled up the sleeves of his robes, pointed his wand at one of the pots, and said, " _Incendio_!"

Small flickering orange flames shot out of his wand, catching the plant's dried and withered brown leaves on fire.

The lesson was going fine until twenty minutes in when a girl screamed. Her high pitch wail got the attention of everyone in the greenhouse. The girl was a Hufflepuff, Sanada and Yanagi's third partner, Amy Holmes, and it very quickly became clear why she was screaming.

Flames were spitting wildly from the end of Sanada's wand, catching several potted plants on fire, including live plants that had not been set-aside for the lesson. Yanagi dumped the bucket of water onto Sanada's wand, but the fire did not stop. If anything, the uncontrollable flames became stronger.

Yanagi and the Hufflepuff girl backed away. Sanada held the wand with both hands as though he was afraid it would shoot out of his grasp.

"Miss Holmes, Mister Yanagi, please step further away from Mister Sanada," Professor Vega said as he approached, quickly waddling from one end of the greenhouse to where Sanada was. The entire class was staring. "Do not drop that wand, Mister Sanada, or the entire greenhouse will be up in flames."

Sanada nodded stiffly.

Without hesitating, Professor Vega grabbed the end of Sanada's wand, smothering the flames with his palm. For several seconds, no one moved, not even Professor Vega, who had to have burned his hand horribly.

"That should do it," Professor Vega said as pulled his hand back. It was not burned red or black with ash.

The professor then produced his wand from his robes and pointed it at the burning plants. A light sprinkle of water came out from the end of his wand, extinguishing the violent orange flames so only the burned stubs of the plants remained. Sanada stood silently, his face redder than fire, and waited for Professor Vega to put out the flames.

"Now, then, Mister Sanada," Professor Vega said, turning to look at him, "I daresay you have had enough practice for today. Fetch another pail of water and assist Mister Yanagi and Miss Holmes for the remainder of class."

Sanada nodded, grabbed the bucket off the ground, and quickly headed towards the hose.

Professor Vega looked at the rest of the class. "Is there a reason you've all stopped?"

Students hurried to get back to work. Several kicked their buckets of water and joined Sanada at the hose at the corner of the greenhouse, though they lingered several feet away, as though they were afraid Sanada would set them aflame. Tezuka walked over with the empty bucket one of his partner's had knocked over and stood next to Sanada. Yukimura could hear their short exchange.

"Tezuka."

"Sanada."

Yukimura smiled.

"Yukimura," Fuji said, "it's your turn to try the spell."

The rest of the lesson was uneventful. They emptied their pots outside then washed the pots with hoses before returning them to the shelves in the greenhouse. Students gathered their things and prepared to leave.

"Mister Sanada," Professor Vega called out. "If you would stay behind for a moment. I have something which I would like to discuss with you."

Sanada looked at Yukimura and Yanagi.

"We'll wait for you outside," Yukimura said.

"Take your time," Yanagi added.

Sanada nodded.

Yukimura and Yanagi waited outside of Greenhouse One, staying on the side where the cool autumn wind did not hit them. They had Transfiguration in ten minutes and the rest of their class had already returned to the castle.

With only a few minutes before their next class, Sanada walked out of the greenhouse with a glum expression. Together they began to walk towards the castle for Transfiguration.

"What was that about?" Yukimura asked. He had no doubt Professor Vega had wanted to talk to Sanada about the mishap, but he had no idea what the professor would say about it. Professor Vega was a grumpy man who was quick to lecture them on proper greenhouse behavior, but Yukimura thought he was quite soft underneath his layers of dirt and thickened skin.

"He said I may have Elemental Affinity," Sanada said, frowning deeply and pinching his eyebrows together.

Yukimura was frowning nearly as much as his friend. There were very few people he considered himself close to and Sanada was among the few. He did not like to see people he cared about distraught.

"What does that mean?" Yanagi asked.

"He said I was good at elemental spells, things like Fire-Making or Water-Making. He told me not to try Water-Making or I'll drown half the castle."

Sanada's eyes shifted nervously from Yukimura's face to the ground where they remained. His shoulders seemed tense and rigid, and he walked stiffly besides them.

Yukimura smiled and said, "Thank Merlin we took swimming lessons when we were children."

Sanada did not relax like Yukimura had hoped. His eyebrows seemed to press even closer together. "Professor Vega said that if I practiced, I could learn really difficult spells that most wizards can't master, and that I could control things like water and fire without spells. He said Elemental Affinity is a lot like being a Seer or a Parselmouth—it's something you're born with."

Sanada looked hesitantly at Yukimura as they entered the castle.

"You're staring," Yukimura said, frowning. "Do I have dirt on my face?"

Sanada shook his head and averted his eyes again.

They arrived late to Transfiguration. Yukimura explained what had happened and Professor Saito did not dock points from Sanada, but he did take five points from Yukimura and Yanagi each, stating that there was no reason for them to be late as well. Their head of house had no sympathy for tardy students, even those in his own house.

* * *

Sanada was acting strangely, Yukimura noticed rather quickly. All his life, Sanada had been by his side, looking toward him for answers, following him no matter where he wanted to go. Now, Sanada's eyes flicked nervously to the side whenever they met Yukimura's and he looked at Yukimura with hesitation instead of subservience. The behavior was so unlike Sanada that Yukimura could not even begin to figure out _why_ Sanada was acting the way he was.

They ate a rather uneventful lunch of sandwiches with juice and pudding in the Great Hall. Yukimura sat near Niou, who did to say anything even when he finished eating, stood up, and left.

"Why do you keep trying to talk to him?" Yanagi asked.

"Because he's interesting," Yukimura said. He had no reason to lie.

The three decided to use their free period to finish their Astronomy homework; Niou had turned down Yukimura's offer to join them without giving a reason why. They cleared their plates and took the last sips from their goblets then left the Great Hall.

As they walked, Akiteru's map felt heavier in Yukimura's bag. He knew that was impossible, that it was all in his head, but curiosity was getting the best of him. He wanted to return to the seventh floor corridor and the mysterious, disappearing room.

He made his decision when they reached the grand staircase.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Yukimura lied with a perfectly believable smile. "You two go on ahead. I'll meet you back in the common room."

Sanada glanced at Yanagi, who said, "I will wait for you at the bottom of the stairs," and descended into the dungeons. Yukimura wondered if they planned that, or if Sanada and Yanagi were close enough to understand each other's subtle hints, though Sanada's strange behavior was quite obvious in Yukimura's opinion.

Once they were alone, Sanada asked, "You're not jealous, are you?"

"Jealous of what?" Yukimura said.

"The elemental thing. You don't hate me because I have it, do you?"

"No, of course not," Yukimura said honestly. "I'll become strong my own way. Besides, the stronger you are, the more support I'll have in the future. I could never hate you, Genichirou—unless you betrayed me, but you won't do that, will you?"

"Never."

Yukimura smiled, happy with Sanada's determination. "Good. Will you stop acting so strangely now?"

"I was acting strangely?"

"You're easier to read than a mirror," Yukimura said lightly. Sanada flushed red. "Now, I really do have to use the bathroom. I'll meet you and Yanagi in the common room in a few minutes and we can do our Herbology homework."

Sanada nodded. Now that that was over and done with, Yukimura could focus his entire attention on the magical room.

When Sanada had gone down the stairs, Yukimura went up in the opposite direction to the seventh floor. The room had appeared on the wall opposite of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, who was trying to teach trolls ballet with little success. When Yukimura arrived at the corridor, the wall was blank, with no door or obvious entrance.

When Akiteru found the room, he had been looking for a place to study and the room appeared as a dueling room. When Yukimura found it, he needed a place to hide and was given a cupboard that led him to the dungeons.

"A room that comes and goes when someone needs it," Yukimura thought out loud.

The only problem was that he did not need anything—not an escape route, or a place to study, or anything else. What he desired was not anything physical, it was more of an idea.

He wanted a goal to strive towards. He wanted to test his limits. He wanted to find everything these magical walls had to offer. He wanted to prove himself.

Before his eyes, a door appeared where the stones were. It was a common wood door not unlike the rest of the doors within the castle, with a black handle that was heavier than it looked. With great difficulty, Yukimura opened the heavy door, the wood creaking and aged metal hinges resisting every inch. He opened the door enough to slip his small, slender body inside. The door closed behind him. Yukimura nearly jumped.

The room was small, barely the size of the room he shared with Sanada and Yanagi, and plain with a wooden floor and bare stone walls. Dust settled in the corners of the room and spiders scurried between his feet back to their webs. There was a lone pedestal in the center of the room on which a dusty scroll was seated.

Yukimura approached the pedestal with caution, half expecting the structure to sink into the ground and spells to fly at him, or worse. He took one final step to the pedestal. Nothing happened.

He lifted the scroll off the pedestal, paused a moment to see if that would force a reaction, and when nothing happened after several moments, he unrolled the scroll.

"Now that is interesting," Yukimura said. He tucked the scroll into his robes and left the room. The door disappeared behind him.

* * *

Yukimura found Sanada and Yanagi in front of the fire in the common room drawing their star charts for Astronomy.

"That was a long bathroom break," Sanada said. "Where did you _actually_ go?"

"Not out here," Yukimura said, looking around the crowded common room. "In the room. I found something interesting."

The two gathered their belongings and they made their way to their room. Yukimura sat on his bed, Sanada and Yanagi sitting on either side of him, and unrolled the scroll. Age and time had bitten away at the edges of the old, faded parchment. The ink, however, looked brand new, most likely enchanted to withstand time.

At the bottom right hand corner was a familiar bronze sigil. An impressive, yet gorgeous bronze eagle outstretched its wings beyond the outline house crest where 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure,' had been written in cursive.

"That's Ravenclaw's sigil," Sanada said.

Yukimura and Yanagi nodded in agreement.

In the center of the scroll, in the same bronze ink and handwriting as Ravenclaw's philosophy, were two lines of text that Yukimura presumed were a riddle.

 _Breath of fire shall uncover another,  
The first clue to that of great wonder._

With a confused look at Yukimura, Sanada said, "This makes no sense. Where did you find this thing, Seiichi?"

Yukimura explained the note on Akiteru's map to Yanagi, though kept his promise to Akiteru and did not say who the map belonged to, as well as the room and how he found the scroll.

Partway through, Sanada said, "I knew your late night walks were going to get us into trouble."

When Yukimura had finished, Yanagi said, "You found the Come and Go Room."

"The what?" Sanada asked.

"The Come and Go Room, or the Room of Requirement. A person can only enter when they need something. It's not always there, but when it is, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs."

"Where did you hear that?" Yukimura asked.

"I read about it in this obscure book I found in the library," Yanagi said. "It was a strange book with random bits of history about the school. Did you know that Helga Hufflepuff beat each of the founders in a duel, or that Rowena Ravenclaw designed the castle?"

"I get why the Sorting Hat wanted to put you in Ravenclaw," Sanada said.

While this was fascinating, Yukimura was more interested by the scroll. "Why would this have Ravenclaw's sigil? And what does the riddle mean by 'great wonder'?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Yanagi said. "I would need time to think about this."

"We should look in the library," Yukimura said.

"No," Sanada said quickly. "This is going to get us into trouble. We should put the scroll back and focus on our school work."

"Aren't you curious?" Yukimura asked. "What if this leads to something, or unlocks some long lost spell? It could be a map."

Yukimura looked to Yanagi, who said, "I think this could be an interesting project. We can work on it between classes and after Quidditch practice."

Yukimura smiled at Sanada. "See, Yanagi's on my side."

"I'm not changing my mind," Sanada said stubbornly. "I think it's a bad idea."

"But you'll help, won't you, Genichirou?"

Sanada did not refuse so Yukimura knew he had won.


	7. Quidditch

**Quidditch**

 _Sanada Genichirou_

Yukimura became a completely different person when he set his mind to something. He insisted they spend their nights off in the library to solve the riddle instead of relaxing in the common room, or playing Exploding Snap with Marui and Jackal down in the Charms corridor.

They didn't try burning the scroll, which was the only idea Sanada could come up with after reading the first line of the riddle: 'breath of fire shall uncover another.' Yanagi suggested tossing it into a magical fire, but that was no better. So they began to read until Sanada eyes strained and the words began to blur together. Yukimura gave him a tome with words that _actually_ moved once and Sanada developed a horrible headache.

Yanagi read every book on Ravenclaw and its founder Rowena that he could find while Yukimura had Sanada reading books on fire summoning spells that Sanada doubted even Akiteru would understand. They read about each spell in hopes of determining what 'breath of fire' actually meant.

The librarian, who everyone called Miss Hanamura, was an attractive, young woman with auburn hair and magical glasses that never slipped down her nose, even when she gave them sideways glances at the sight of the three first years huddled in a corner with a mountain of books. She never asked what they were doing but sometimes a very useful book would appear in their stack with no explanation.

"We could ask her for help," Sanada said one night. "She knows the books in the library better than we do."

"No," Yukimura said.

"Why not?"

"We can't exactly explain that we're looking up information to solve a riddle from a mysterious scroll that I found in a disappearing room. She'd think we're mad, or meddling with the Dark Arts."

Sanada surely thought he was already going mad, but he was never one to argue with Yukimura, who was usually right. Yet for all the exploring Yukimura did, he did not find a single comfortable chair in the entire library.

"I haven't found anything on Elemental Affinity either," Sanada said in passing.

"Neither have I," Yanagi said.

Sanada looked at Yukimura, hopeful, but Yukimura shook his head. Sanada was beginning to wonder if Professor Vega had made up the term.

The first Quidditch match of the season came in the middle of October, when the grounds were beginning to become uncomfortably cold and no amount of blankets in the Slytherin common room could warm Sanada. The match was Slytherin versus Ravenclaw, their first match after weeks of training.

In the days leading up to the match, Sanada felt that saying the match was Slytherin versus Ravenclaw was wrong—it was Slytherin versus the entirety of Hogwarts. Both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were proudly supporting Ravenclaw. Some older students from the Gryffindor shouted at the Slytherin team when they came to the Great Hall after practice.

"Do you know a silencing charm, Yanagi?" Yukimura asked. He did not say it, but Sanada knew Yukimura was growing tired of the entire school's obvious dislike of Slytherin. They all were.

"I'm afraid I don't," Yanagi said. "Yagyuu might."

Sanada was thankful that Yukimura had befriended Yagyuu, who was much more civil about the upcoming match than many others in his house. Yagyuu said he was not one for Quidditch, but promised to come and see them play their first match anyways.

Marui and Jackal said they would cheer for Slytherin if they didn't think their housemates would push them out of the stands for it. Sanada didn't put it past the Gryffindors either—the house hated Slytherin more than Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw combined.

Yukimura smiled and told Marui and Jackal that there was no need to apologize. "We have our own house cheering for us," he added.

"If you win, I'll grab you guys some butterbeer from the kitchens," Marui said. "The house elves are really nice to us now. They even stopped hitting themselves with frying pans whenever we ask for food after dinner."

"That weirded me out," Jackal said, clearly disturbed. "I'm glad they stopped that."

Marui nodded in agreement. "Yeah, me too. We're making some real progress. I think it's my natural charm."

The day of the match, Sanada felt hollow, as though his stomach had disappeared and left him with a sour pit. The team had been practicing harder than ever in anticipation of the first match so there was no reason to be worried, but Sanada could not help but feel anxious.

He had never played in an official Quidditch match before. What if he let Yukimura and Yanagi down? What if he was the reason their team lost? The entire house would blame him if they lost, he was sure of it.

By breakfast, he had come up with an inclusive list of what could go wrong during the match. Everything from falling off his broom or tossing the Quaffle at Yukimura's head made the list.

Sanada had never been under so much stress in his life. He had not even touched the toast on his plate. Just looking at Yukimura and Yanagi eat made him want to run to the nearest bathroom.

"You haven't eaten anything," Yukimura said.

"I'm fine."

"You really should eat, Genichirou."

"I'm not hungry."

Yukimura frowned. "You know I won't let up until you eat."

"I feel sick," Sanada said quietly, glancing hesitantly at Yanagi. He did not want to make a habit of admitting his weakness in front of Yanagi. Doing it in front of Yukimura was bad enough, but there was a large difference between Yukimura and Yanagi.

"All the more reason to eat," Yukimura said. "You don't want to get sick during our first match of the season."

Just then, Akiteru slid over and said, "Eat, Gen, or I'll hex you and feed you myself."

Sanada turned a brilliant shade of red. He had never eaten toast so fast in his entire life.

Akiteru grinned at Yukimura. "That's how you do it, Seiichi. Just like our mom does."

"Pisky cries if we don't eat," Yukimura said, smiling fondly. Pisky was the house elf that lived with the Yukimura's and she did not cry, she wailed loudly and horribly until you finished whatever was on your plate.

"Hold on a moment, please," Yanagi said, sounding confused. "You mother hexes you?"

Sanada nodded.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Akiteru said lightly. "Just cheek pinching spells and ones that make us choke on our tongues if we lie about who dragged in mud."

"I've never gotten that one," Sanada said.

"Our parents are aurors," Akiteru added. "Mom heads the Auror Office for the Ministry."

Sanada wondered if Yanagi knew what an auror was, but he could not say what they were without giving away Yanagi's blood-status. Yanagi read a lot and was very smart so he most likely knew that an auror was a dark wizard catcher.

"That's rather impressive," Yanagi said. "What do your parents do, Yukimura?"

Sanada looked at Yukimura. It was a touchy subject. Yukimura did not let it show.

"My mother also works for the Ministry of Magic, but in the Department for the Preservation of Historical Artifacts. My father is a herbologist."

"All this talk about home reminded me that I need to send an owl to Mom," Akiteru said. He put a rather large helping of roasted potatoes and two more pieces of toast onto Sanada's plate then stood up and left.

Yukimura smiled at Sanada. "You don't look as nervous about the match, Genichirou. That's good."

"I'd forgotten about that match," Sanada muttered.

Yukimura hummed, pushed a plate of sausage links to Sanada, and said, "Eat, or I'll call Akiteru back."

* * *

The stands around the Pitch were packed with students and professors, who sat in a small section by themselves. Even Professor Reyna had shown up to watch, though she looked like she belonged at a funeral, not a school Quidditch match. Did the woman ever wear anything besides black?

Banners of blue and bronze dominated the stands, but there was a block of green and silver where the Slytherins were sitting. Ravenclaws had enchanted small plastic megaphones to let out horrible, bird-like screeching whenever they were screamed into. People were banging their feet and clapping and shouting before the match had even started. It was overwhelming.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, the Slytherin team changed into green robes. Ravenclaw would be wearing blue. Sanada struggled to strap on his padding, his hands uncharacteristically unsteady.

Sanada knew Seekers were the most likely to be injured since they were the smallest players, but the Beaters would be aiming at whichever of them had the Quaffle. He heard people had gone into comas after being hit in the head by a Bludger. Sanada hoped that Ravenclaws did not have good aim.

Yukimura and Sanada were the last two to leave the locker room.

"You'll be fine," Yukimura said. "Don't you trust me?"

Sanada took a deep breath. He nodded. "With my life."

Yukimura smiled. "No need to be so dramatic, Genichirou."

They joined their team on the Pitch.

Professor Ryuzaki was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams. She had her broom with her and a silver whistle on a string around her neck.

"Let's get through the game without any fouls," she said, looking fixatedly at the Slytherins but not the Ravenclaws. "Captains, step forward and shake hands."

The Slytherin team captain, a sixth year named Imayoshi, stepped forward. He said, "Let's have a good game today, Masters."

A short blonde girl with gray eyes stuck out her hand. "Just don't try to fly us into the ground like you did last year."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Imayoshi said, but his smile said otherwise. He did not shake her hand.

"That's enough," Professor Ryuzaki said. "Mount your brooms."

Sanada got onto his broomstick.

Professor Ryuzaki blasted her silver whistle.

They flew up high into the air. They were off.

"The Quaffle goes to Atobe Keigo, one of two first years on the Ravenclaw team this year—he passes to second year Chaser and Captain Masters, the very reason first years are now allowed to tryout for house teams—she barely misses a Bludger, nice diving!"

Professor Watanabe was the commenter for the match. The head of Hufflepuff house would hopefully be more impartial than a student.

"And Masters is at the goal—she makes the toss but Slytherin Keeper and Captain Imayoshi blocks the goal—the Quaffles goes to Yukimura, another one of the famous first years that made the house team—he's making quick time—already on the other side of the Pitch—a dive to the third goalpost—the Ravenclaw Keeper didn't see that coming—and he scores. The first points of the season go to Slytherin!"

Three fourths of the crowd groaned, but Sanada did not have time to care. They turned around to chase after Atobe, who now had the Quaffle.

"Genichirou!" Yukimura shouted, though he appeared calm. "Mark him."

Sanada nodded.

"The Quaffle is sent to Atobe—Sanada is gaining—a strategic pass to Akutagawa. Is he asleep? I think he is—the pass fails, the Quaffle is falling and Yukimura intercepts the Quaffle for Slytherin! He saw Akutagawa was asleep and took a chance—follows with a pass to Yanagi—Atobe is pursuing for Ravenclaw—Ravenclaw has hit a Bludger at their own teammate to wake him up—Quaffle back to Yukimura, he's flying down the Pitch, look at that speed!"

Yukimura glanced over his shoulder and tossed the Quaffle to Sanada. He caught the ball, tucking it securely under his arm, and flew faster than ever towards the goalposts. He kept Yukimura and Yanagi in his field of vision and hoped the Beaters did their job at keeping the Bludgers away.

"Sanada's in possession of the Quaffle—it's back to Yanagi—to Yukimura—Sanada—Yukimura—these first years are passing like crazy! Bludger coming in from behind—knocked right back, avoided something nasty there—Atobe is gaining on Sanada—Akutagawa is awake and disoriented—Atobe is along side Sanada, he's marked—Sanada tries to shake him but isn't having much luck from the looks of it—"

Yanagi tossed the Quaffle back to Yukimura, who jerked to the left in front of the goalposts, surprising the Keeper yet again, and made a clean goal.

"Slytherin scores again! The score is twenty-zero."

They looped back around as the Keeper tossed to Atobe, already out of Sanada's reach. Atobe was fast. He must have been using a different broom than he did at tryouts.

"Atobe to Akutagawa, who's back in commission—no, Akutagawa missed! Not as awake as he seems, but Ravenclaw Captain Masters saves the Quaffle—Masters on her way to the goals, she's quick for such a short girl, she'd make a good Seeker—ohh, has the Snitch been spotted already? Ravenclaw Seeker Stevenson is diving down, faster than an eagle, reaching out—yes, yes, she's seen it—OUCH—a Bludger out of nowhere, Stevenson stumbles and—when did Yukimura get a hold of the Quaffle?"

Sanada stretched out his arm to signal he was open then saw someone come up alongside him. Sanada retracted his arm.

Atobe smirked and flew ahead.

Yukimura and Yanagi passed back and forth rapidly, dividing the Beaters' and Chaser's attention. Atobe flew into the middle of their passing route and Yukimura barely reacted in time, hanging onto the Quaffle instead of tossing it.

"Yukimura cuts left at the goalposts and scores! Thirty-zero for Slytherin. The Keeper sends the Quaffle out to Atobe again—the Ravenclaw team has a lot of trust in that first year and I can see why, he's a prodigy just like Masters—Atobe flying down the Pitch, already at the goals—Ravenclaw scores!"

The game was brutal. The Chasers went head to head, scoring point for point.

The score was eighty-fifty when a Ravenclaw Beater swung wide and hit Yanagi with his bat. Yanagi barely held onto his broomstick, the wind knocked straight out of him.

"A nasty foul from Ravenclaw," Professor Watanabe said and the crowd booed. "Aw, shut it. Professor Ryuzaki made the call, not me."

The match halted as everyone moved into position for Yanagi's penalty throw.

"Expected something like that from Slytherin, not Ravenclaw. Interesting turn of events. If Yanagi makes this shot, Slytherin will widen their lead."

Sanada flew up next to Yanagi right before he took his shot. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Yanagi looked winded. He had taken a Beater's bat to the stomach, after all. Determined, he said, "Tell Yukimura he can still pass to me."

Sanada nodded and flew towards Yukimura to relay the message.

"Yanagi takes his shot—great aim for a first year—and it's in! The score is ninety-fifty and the match resumes."

A Bludger blew dangerously close to Sanada's right ear and he wondered what the hell the Beaters were doing. He saw Yukimura's outstretched arm and tossed the Quaffle. They flew down the field.

"The first year Chasers are making their move, but so is the Ravenclaw's Seeker—straight down the field in a dive—Slytherin Seeker is right behind—it's down to speed—Ravenclaw is reaching out—Slytherin right there—has she done it? Yes, she has! Ravenclaw's Stevenson has caught the Snitch! One hundred and fifty points are awarded to Ravenclaw."

The match ended suddenly.

"Ravenclaw wins!"

It was their first match and their first defeat.

The world did not end, but it felt as though it may have.

* * *

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi were the last members of their team to leave the locker room. They walked slowly and silently from the Pitch up the grounds to the castle. Marui and Jackal met them just outside the main courtyard.

"We have butterbeer and food," Marui said, lifting the basket he was holding. "Courtesy of the house elves."

"We didn't win," Yukimura said. It was the first thing any of them had said since the match ended.

Yanagi lowered his head. Sanada frowned.

Jackal shrugged and said, "We figured you'd need it even more, then."

"The cookies are still warm," Marui said.

They sat and ate at the edge of the Great Lake. They had bottles of warm butterbeer, ginger cookies, small strawberry cakes, and marshmallow fudge that melted in their mouths. The butterbeer was smooth and warmed Sanada's entire body. It did not make him feel any better, but it certainly did not make him feel worse.

Marui and Jackal did their best to talk about anything and everything besides the match.

"I heard a fourth year say there was a giant squid in the Great Lake," Jackal said.

"I heard merpeople live there," Marui said. He blew a large purple bubble with his gum that stuck in the grass.

"Both are in the lake," Yukimura said.

"How do you know?" Marui asked. He was now blowing a blue bubble.

"The Slytherin common room extends beneath the lake. We have windows along the lakebed."

"I don't know if that's cool or creepy," Jackal said.

Yukimura lied down in the cool grass and folded his hands beneath his head. Slowly and with great thought, he said, "I was thinking about the match and what we could have done differently and I realized something: if we'd had a lead of at least one hundred and sixty points, it wouldn't matter if the other team caught the Snitch. We would have still won."

"Or we could find a better Seeker," Sanada said. It would be much easier to replace the problem than it was to score one hundred and sixty points more than their opponent every match—not that he doubted Yukimura could pull it off, but like today, the opponent's Seeker may decide the match. "Didn't someone else tryout for the Seeker position?"

"One person," Yanagi said. "They were awful. They didn't dodge a single Bludger during tryouts."

Sanada frowned. So much for that idea.

Meanwhile, Marui and Jackal were sharing a panicked look, as though debating how to get out of this conversation.

"For now, we need to be faster," Yukimura decided. "The Seeker will come when we're third years."

"Why third year?" Sanada asked.

"Because when we're third years, the current sixth years will have all graduated and our Seeker is a sixth year."

"Imayoshi is also a sixth year," Yanagi said. Yukimura and Sanada turned their heads to look at him, wondering what he was getting at. Yanagi smiled. "The team would need a new captain."

"I think Genichirou would make a fine captain," Yukimura said thoughtfully.

Sanada poked Yukimura just beneath his ribs. "Don't play that game. You know Yanagi meant you, not me."

"Captain Yukimura. I like the sound of that." Yukimura smiled, not a trace of their loss in his expression. Yukimura was always quick to get back on his feet when he fell. "Wouldn't it be nice to win the Quidditch House Cup every year?"

"No one's ever done it," Sanada said. "Slytherin hasn't even won it in ten years."

Yukimura tilted his head. "Then we will have to change that."

"It will be hard without a proper Seeker," Yanagi said.

"Then from third year onward," Yukimura said. "We'll win five Quidditch House Cups in a row. That still beats the record, doesn't it?"

Sanada nodded.

Marui and Jackal looked completely and utterly lost.

"What just happened?" Marui asked.

"I have no idea," Jackal said.

Yukimura laughed—it was infectious. Soon Sanada was smiling and Yanagi was laughing and even Marui and Jackal, confused as they were, were laughing too.


	8. Halloween

**Halloween**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

It was easy to forget about the riddle and their loss when everyone was happily anticipating the Halloween feast. The large pumpkins at the edge of the Forbidden Forest had been transported to the Great Hall and were carved into massive jack-o-lanterns. There were now live bats that flew around the rafters. The ghosts were spending more and more time in the Great Hall to add to the spooky atmosphere, and Nearly Headless Nick was glad to tell horrific stories about his death to anyone who would listen.

On Halloween morning, Professor Reyna declared that they had finished their lessons on imps and that they would have a practical exam out on the grounds where she had converted a section of grass into a marsh that bubbled and frothed and smelled of something foul.

Imps—nasty, pale, little creatures with pointed ears and crooked smiles—were lounging on floating lily pads and protruding logs. One was using a twig to pick bug wings from its teeth.

"Do you think it's too late to pretend I'm sick?" Marui asked. "Quick, Jackal, fall down so I can take you to the Hospital Wing."

"I'm not hurting myself so you can get out of an exam," Jackal said.

"You would if you were my friend."

A spotted frog jumped onto Oshitari Kenya from Gryffindor and his cousin Yuushi in Slytherin laughed. Kenya pushed Yuushi into the marsh, but Yuushi dragged Kenya in with him. Professor Reyna deducted five hours points from each of them then shouted, "Hurry up and get out, you lazy bums. This is not a swimming lesson!"

The cousins dragged themselves out of the lake. The two were covered in algae and dripping wet. The rest of the students stood several feet away from them. They smelled horrible.

"Your goal," Professor Reyna told them, "is to get through the marsh. I will be grading you based on your performance. Do whatever the bloody hell you have to to get to the other side. You'll be sent across in groups of fives, but you will be graded individually. Whether you work together or not is up to you.

"The first group is Yukimura, Kawamura, Tachibana, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum."

"Are we Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Kenya asked.

"If we are, you're Tweedledum," Yuushi said.

Kenya nearly pushed Yuushi back into the marsh.

"Stop messing around and head east to the starting line," Professor Reyna ordered.

On the east side of the marsh was a white chalk starting line. Seventy feet away, on the other side of the marsh, Professor Reyna pointed her wand into the air. Orange sparks shot up into the sky.

"Are we supposed to go?" Kawamura asked, hesitant. For a Gryffindor, he was surprisingly soft hearted.

"GO!" Professor Reyna roared.

Yukimura slowly put his weight onto a large lily pad, testing. When he discovered it could hold his weight, he stepped onto it. From there he jumped onto a log, waving his arms to keep his balance, then a moved onto a slippery, algae covered rock. There wasn't a single surface that wasn't wet or dangerously slick.

Halfway across, the imps began to pester them. One jumped onto Kawamura's back and pulled his robes above his head. Kawamura fell into the marsh with a panicked scream and a large splash.

An imp grabbed Yukimura by the ankle, tugging and pulling to make him lose his balance and fall in. It cackled as Yukimura tried to kick it off to no avail. The thing would not budge.

Yukimura pointed his wand at the creature and said, " _Flipendo_!" The imp was blasted back into the water.

Yukimura pressed on.

Tachibana from Gryffindor was several feet ahead of him and had also chosen an offensive approach, using the same Knockback Jinx to blast away the imps on the rocks in front of him. The imps did not appear to like that and several jumped on Tachibana at once, grabbing onto his legs and arms. Tachibana flailed in an attempt to get them off, but he lost his footing on the log and slipped into the marsh.

With the imps focusing on Tachibana, Yukimura hurried across a path of lily pads until he was one jump away from the shore where Professor Reyna and the rest of the class stood watching. Yukimura jumped, his legs hitting the water but his arms grasping the solid ground, and he heaved himself up onto dry land.

Professor Reyna looked down her nose at him. "You beat the course record by five and a half seconds. Impressive. Ten points to Slytherin."

Yukimura smiled proudly.

The rest of the class ran through the course. Sanada fell in once near the end, when an imp jumped and grabbed onto his head, yanking and pulling at his hair. Yanagi made it through without falling in by taking his time and avoiding the imps all together. Marui rode on Jackal's back, shooting imps with jinxes while Jackal treaded through the marsh with a miserable expression. Fuji had a staring contest with the imps and Niou took the chance to slip by without confrontation.

By the end of class, everyone smelled like rotten planets, and half of them had mud on their robes. No one came close to beating the record Yukimura had set.

The Slytherins headed straight to Charms after Defense Against the Dark Arts ended. They had to run to make it on time. Upon their arrival, Professor Watanabe laughed so hard he fell out of his chair. The Hufflepuffs gawked at them.

"Professor Reyna at it again?" Professor Watanabe asked with tears in his eyes. He sat cross-legged on top of his desk instead of in the chair. "She always does one of her obstacle courses this time of year. What was it this time? You all stink. Pee-ew!"

"Imps in a marsh," Oshitari said, adjusting his hopelessly dirty glasses. Every time his cousin Kenya fell in, he dragged Yuushi along with him. Professor Reyna said it would have been faster if they had just swum across the marsh.

"Imps, that's a messy one," Professor Watanabe said. "Who made it through the course first this year?"

"Yukimura," Fuji said. "He broke the course record."

"Tachibana was right behind me until the very end," Yukimura said, sounding modest. "Besides, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw still have to go through it. My record may be broken by the end of the day."

"Do you really believe that?" Tezuka asked with an unimpressed face.

Yukimura did not say anything, but his smile held his answer.

The Slytherins took their seats. Usually, the Hufflepuffs simply ignored them, but now that they smelled like marsh water, the Hufflepuffs stayed several feet away from the Slytherins. Oshitari managed to corner Mukahi at the end of a row. The redhead looked physically ill.

"Today we're going to be doing that Levitation Charm we've been learning about," Professor Watanabe said and the class broke into excited whispering. "Calm down, calm down. We're just doing some feathers. We'll work with heavier things next class. I want everyone to take out a feather—I did tell you to bring them today, didn't I? Oh, good, you all have feathers. That would have been embarrassing."

Professor Watanabe took his wand out of his pocket and did a swish and flick with his wrist. "Juuust like that, like we practiced. Who can tell me the incantation we've learned?"

" _Wingardium Leviosa,"_ a Hufflepuff said.

"Great. Everyone got it? Let's try it, then!"

It was more difficult than Professor Watanabe made it look when he floated a suit of armor last class. Yanagi fussed over the pronunciation of the incantation of the spell, Sanada nodding and listening intently.

All around the room, students were shouting at their feathers or waving their arms wildly. Mukahi had started a competition with Kikumaru, though Yukimura did not think that Kikumaru knew about it.

Then, on the other side of the room, a feather was floating off the table above the students' heads. Shiraishi was smiling and staring up at the feather levitating above his desk.

"Well done, Shiraishi!" Professor Watanabe shouted in pleasant surprise. "Everyone see that? That's what's supposed to happen. Five points to Hufflepuff."

Several rows behind Shiraishi, at the back of the room, Yukimura saw another feather floating. Niou had his wand pointed at the levitating feather, looking rather bored. No one around him seemed to have noticed his success.

Yukimura looked at his own feather. He flicked his wand and said, " _Wingardium Leviosa_!"

His feather slowly rose.

"You're doing well today," Yanagi said. "First Defense Against the Dark Arts, now Charms."

"You think so?" Yukimura asked. Both Sanada and Yanagi nodded. "Genichirou, do you think the Levitation Charm counts as an elemental charm since it requires manipulating the air?"

Sanada, who had not tried the spell, or any other elemental spell since the incident in Herbology for that matter, pointed his wand at his feather and said, " _Wingardium Leviosa_."

The feather shot up to the ceiling then slowly floated back down. No one else seemed to have noticed. Sanada carefully set his wand on the desk.

Yukimura, who was trying very hard not to laugh, said, "I think it counts as an elemental charm. Don't you agree, Yanagi?"

"Yes, I do."

Sanada turned a brilliant shade of red and sank into his seat.

* * *

The Halloween feast that night was magnificent—warm pumpkin bread, cinnamon apples, sweet potatoes, stuffed peppers, squash, and roasted hams the size of Yukimura's head. The bats swooped down from the ceilings and flew near their heads as they ate, flapping their wings and skimming over the pumpkin juice for a drink. Farther down the Slytherin table, Fuji was charming small decorative pumpkins to dance.

Before dessert replaced the main dishes, Marui and Jackal came over to the Slytherin table. They still smelled like marsh water—all the first years did, even after showering and rubbing their skin red with soap.

"We're out of pumpkin bread at our table," Marui said, reaching in-between Sanada and Yanagi. He grabbed the largest piece from the basket.

"Do you want to sit?" Yukimura asked. "We can make room."

Jackal looked nervously at the surrounding Slytherins, who were staring. "Maybe next time," Jackal said.

"Enemy territory," Marui joked before taking a large bit of his bread. "How'd Charms go? Who made the feather float first in your class?"

"Shiraishi from Hufflepuff," Yanagi said. "Yukimura was second."

"I was the first in our class," Marui said.

"Atobe was first," Jackal said.

"Okay, maybe not _first_ , but definitely top ten," Marui conceded. "I did better than most of the nerds in Ravenclaw. They weren't acting so big when it was _my_ floating feather that almost poked Professor Watanabe's eye out."

Yukimura smiled at Marui's story then said, "I actually think it was Niou who was the first to make their feather levitate in our class."

"He didn't say anything," Sanada said, looking confused. "Why would he levitate his feather and not say anything?"

"'Cause Niou's a freak," Marui said. He began to grab more bread, piling it in a makeshift bag he had made with his robes. "This was a nice chat, but we should go. I can only take Slytherins glaring at me for so long."

"Happy Halloween," Jackal said.

Dessert was met with candy-filled pumpkins, apples dipped in candy and caramel, black cauldrons of big lollipops, carrot cake, and the best pumpkin pie Yukimura had ever tasted.

The ghosts glided into the hall in practiced formations. Many danced and twirled overhead while the Bloody Baron shook his chains menacingly. Nearly Headless Nick appeared from under the Gryffindor table with his head in the pudding. Even the Grey Lady, the Ravenclaw ghost who frequented the hallways by the library and Astronomy Tower, was in attendance. She talked to an older Slytherin student at the entrance to the hall for nearly ten minutes before being whisked away by the Fat Friar.

The feast ended with the suits of armor fencing in front of the professors' table. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi left before the end of the show.

While walking through the dungeons, they heard a loud voice coming from behind them.

"FIRST YEARS. I SEE FIRST YEARS!"

"Peeves," Sanada groaned.

"Who?" Yanagi asked.

"The poltergeist that lives at Hogwarts," Yukimura said.

Usually the poltergeist avoided the dungeons because that's where the Bloody Baron liked to roam. Peeves must have realized that the Slytherin ghost was at the feast and would not be in the dungeons to scare him off.

Peeves was a little man with slanted orange eyes that dressed in outlandish clothes that were better suited to a clown. He was not pearly white and transparent like the ghosts but solid, though Yukimura heard he could become invisible whenever he wanted.

Peeves flew above them in circles, holding a pumpkin the size of their heads.

"Akiteru said to ignore him," Sanada said.

Yukimura and Yanagi both nodded.

"Ignore me? How dare you ignore me!" Peeves sped ahead of them and, grinning wickedly, held the pumpkin in front of him. He shouted with glee, "Bombs awaaay!" and dropped the pumpkin over their heads.

"Seiichi!" Sanada grabbed the collar of Yukimura's robes and yanked him back just in time. The pumpkin exploded against the ground, splattering on the three of them. Yukimura was sure his feet would smell like pumpkin for a week, if not longer.

If that pumpkin had hit them, it would have hurt more than a Bludger.

"Seiichi?" Peeves grinned. " _Yukimura_ Seiichi? Oh, the ghosts have been gossiping about you like a bunch of old whores on the rag!"

Yukimura looked at Sanada and Yanagi and said, "Let's go."

Peeves floated behind them, cackling. "All the ghosts are so-o-o happy you have magic. They won't stop talking about it. They thought you were a squib like that father of yours."

"My father is not a squib," Yukimura said.

"May as well have been! He tried to jinx me once, you know, when he was Head Boy, but he couldn't even light a candle."

Yukimura wrapped his fingers around his wand in his pocket. Beside him, Sanada was walking with clenched fists.

No one was supposed to know that. It was kept a secret from all the other pure-blood families, but of course the ghosts would know, they were here when his parents were. They would have seen his father's magic, or lack thereof.

"Too proud to respond?" Peeves asked. "Maybe I should run ahead and tell everyone that little Yukimura Seiichi has lost his precious magic."

"PEEVES!" a gruff voice roared.

Peeves startled. The Bloody Baron drifted through a tapestry, his dead, blank eyes staring at the poltergeist. He said, "Peeves, what have I told you about terrorizing students?"

"I think I've forgotten," Peeves said.

"Do not pretend to be stupid. Or maybe you truly are stupid. If that is the case, do I need to remind you?"

Peeves rolled his eyes. In a high, whiny voice, he said, "You told me not to terrorize the students."

"Then why are you doing it?"

"They started it!"

" _Peeves_."

Peeves blew a loud, wet raspberry in their direction then turned around and went back the way they came. Hopefully he would not find another pumpkin to smash into first years' heads.

"Are you three alright?" the Bloody Baron asked. They all nodded. "Do you know the way to the common room?"

"Yes," Yukimura said.

The Bloody Baron looked at Yukimura for a moment, then nodded curtly. "Then I will be on my way. Happy Halloween." He turned and floated through a wall, disappearing.

The three stood silently in the hallway for a moment.

Eventually, Yukimura looked around, saw that no one was near them, and said, "You can ask. I don't mind."

Yanagi cleared his throat. "What was that about your father?"

"With every generation, the magic in my family has grown weaker," Yukimura said with great difficulty and much pride. "My father was brilliant, but he could not perform magic, not really at least. He can hardly light his own wand. Anything above a first year level is too hard for him. He managed passing marks because classes were more theoretical than they were practical when he attended school here.

"My family used to be included in every history book. We created spells and potions that revolutionized the wizarding world, but that was centuries ago. Over time, our magic declined and our name started to disappear from history along with our power. Not many people know, but those who do say that our magic is fading."

"I didn't know that magic could leave a family," Yanagi said. "I've never read anything about it."

"Magic can appear randomly in muggles, so why can't it leave witches and wizards?"

"But you and your sister have magic," Sanada said. "Magic has not left you, or your family."

Yukimura nodded solemnly. He had magic and it was stronger than his father's, even at his young age.

"Everyone thought my sister and I would be squibs—wizard-borns who don't have magic—but when I was two, I started changing the color of the flowers in the garden. Apparently my parents were so relieved that they did nothing but cry for three days. My sister showed her magic around the same age as me. My parents say that we broke the curse of our family name."

Yanagi, who always had something to add, was silent.

"Don't look so awkward," Yukimura told him. "Like Genichirou said, I have magic, don't I?"

"You're the best wizard I know," Yanagi said.

"Thank you. That means a lot coming from you, you're brilliant." Yukimura smiled. "We should go to the common room before Peeves comes back. I don't want to meet him again."

"I'll hex him next time he talks about your family like that," Sanada said.

"Oh, that will be interesting," Yukimura said happily. "I look forward to it. I hope you don't mind if I take the first shot, though."

They made it back to the common room without running into Peeves again. Inside, they saw Akiteru sitting in front of the fire with his wand out. The three walked by to go to their room and Akiteru called out, "Gen!" They changed course for the prefect.

"What are you trying to do to the fire?" Sanada asked. "And why weren't you at the feast?"

"Transfigure it into a snake," Akiteru said. "Saito taught me the spell. I've been working on it all afternoon, but I haven't been able to get it right... Anyway, Gen, Mom sent us homemade Pumpkin Pasties for Halloween. I put yours on your bed. She said she made enough for Seiichi, too."

Yukimura brightened considerably at that. Mrs. Sanada's homemade food was more than enough to make him forget about what Peeves had said.

"You can have some too," Sanada said as he looked at Yanagi, who smiled and nodded. Yanagi was always happy to be included by Yukimura and Sanada.

"Aw, you have friends to share with, Gen," Akiteru teased. Sanada blushed. "So how was your first Halloween at Hogwarts? I heard Reyna made you do an obstacle course."

"Imps in a marsh," Sanada said.

"Yukimura beat the course record," Yanagi said.

"Way to go, Seiichi," Akiteru said with a proud smile. "How'd you do, Gen?"

"I finished first in my group."

Akiteru's smile seemed to grow. "Just like your big bro. And you, uh, I don't know your name. How'd you do?"

"My name is Yanagi Renji. I was in your brother's group. I finished second."

"Good job, Yanagi." Akiteru looked between the three of them. "Anything else interesting happen today? See anything spooky?" Akiteru grinned, obviously joking. There was no such thing as spooky at a school inhabited by ghosts and witches and wizards.

"We ran into Peeves," Sanada said with a sour expression. "The Bloody Baron scared him away."

Akiteru nodded sympathetically. "Peeves is more annoying than usual this time of year—he's a downright pain. The prefects have extra patrol tonight to make sure he doesn't get up to trouble. Last year, he flooded the dungeons. Year before that, he got all the house elves drunk in the kitchens. Then there were the eggs, and the toilet paper on the Whomping Willow… Watch out for yourselves."

"We always do," Yukimura said.

"More than usual," Akiteru said seriously. "Strange things happen on Halloween night and I don't just mean Peeves."

"We will," Sanada said.

"Happy Halloween, you three."

Akiteru pointed his wand back at the fire and said the incantation. The fire curled and wisped like a snake, but did not change form. Akiteru sighed heavily.

* * *

Yukimura was unable to sleep that night. He kept remembering what Peeves had said. It had all been true except that his father was not a squib, but he was close enough that technicalities did not truly matter. His father was a brilliant man, but a horrible wizard in practice. They thought he would be the last wizard the Yukimura bloodline ever produced.

Yukimura would change that, though. He would make a name for himself and bring their family back into the history books. He would return the family's lost status and rise so high that no one could question him. He would reach the top no matter what.

Just before midnight, he gave up on sleep all together and headed towards the common room with his copy of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi._ At first glance, the common room was empty, but Yukimura spotted someone moving near the entrance.

One second, he was looking at Niou's back—no other Slytherin had white hair like that—only the first year was wearing robes far too large for him. Then, without the uncorking of a potion or the flash of the spell, Niou had changed. He was taller with short dark hair and familiar broad shoulders, and he fit and filled the robes perfectly.

He left. He had not noticed Yukimura.

Yukimura had goosebumps on his arms and neck. Akiteru was right when he said strange things happened on Halloween night.


	9. The Lost Library

**The Lost Library**

 _Yanagi Renji_

Potions was by far Yanagi's favorite subject. It was logical in a way that many of his other classes were not, it reminded him of muggle chemistry, and he quite liked his Potions partner, a half-blood from Ravenclaw named Inui Sadaharu.

Inui was intelligent, and they worked well together, and they had not melted a single cauldron, which was more than Chitose from Ravenclaw and his partner could say (they had already melted three and exploded another two). Inui talked about brewing his own original potions in the cabinet in his room, which Yanagi found to be quite fascinating, even if Inui had not had much success. His last invention did not burn down his dressing cabinet, which Yanagi considered a success compared to his first disastrous attempts.

"I need to look for alternative places to brew, though," Inui said. "My roommates are starting to complain about the smell. They say it smells like sulfur, but I don't know where it could have come from. I didn't add anything sulfuric…"

Yanagi wondered if it was a good thing Inui's potion smelled so awful. Probably not.

They spent first part of November learning about the Forgetfulness Potion, which was true to its name and caused memory loss in the drinker. They finally brewed the potion halfway through the month.

Inui prepared the Valerian sprigs while Yanagi stirred their Forgetfulness Potion, which was pumpkin orange but released sky blue smoke. Inui dropped the sprigs into the cauldron, which Yanagi then stirred three times clockwise.

"Do you have any plans for winter break?" Inui asked.

"Nothing particularly interesting," Yanagi said. He had planned on staying at Hogwarts to do more research on the scroll, but he could not tell Inui that. He was quite excited about seeing Hogwarts decorated for Christmas, if it was going to be anything like it had been during Halloween. "Do you have plans?"

"I'm going home," Inui said. "Not particularly interesting either."

They were the first pair to finish their potion, which they put into a corked glass vial that they handed to Professor Kurobe to be graded. Yanagi did not know how their professor would be testing the memory loss; he could not do it on himself because he would merely forget which students' potions he was testing, but he could write their names down beforehand, or use some type of animal instead.

Professor Kurobe examined their potion, turning the vial this way and that and holding it up to a light to check the color, and then said, "Very well done. You two are free to leave."

They washed their cauldron and ladle in the stone basin in the back of the room then gathered their things to leave. They passed Yukimura and Sanada on their way out. Yukimura had pulled back his hair, which had curled and frizzed horribly from the smoke, and Sanada was reading the instructions from his copy of _Magical Drafts and Potions_ with great intensity.

"It doesn't say what to do if it turns yellow, Seiichi," Sanada said.

Yukimura frowned deeply and said, "It has to say _something_. I'm sure this is a very common issue."

Yanagi would have stayed to offer them help if he did not think Professor Kurobe would dock points from Yukimura and Sanada's project grade, or if Inui was not waiting for him at the back of the room.

"We have nearly forty minutes until next period," Inui said as they walked through the dungeons. "Do you want to play wizards' chess? I have a set in my room that I could get."

Yanagi had never played wizards' chess but had heard all about it and had even seen some older students playing it in the common room. Since the pieces destroyed themselves, he wondered if they reformed at the end of the match, or if you had to buy a new set every time. He added it to his mental list of things to ask Yukimura and Sanada about the wizarding world.

"I need to go the library and look up a few things," Yanagi said. "If we ever get out early again, could we play then?"

"There is an eighty percent chance we will always finish Potions early on brewing days," Inui said, sounding very confident in that number. "Next time we'll play together."

Yanagi smiled. He really did like Inui. He was very clever.

They went their separate ways on the third floor; Inui continued to go up the stairs, as many Ravenclaws did, leading Yanagi to believe their dorms were somewhere on a higher level, while Yanagi veered to the right to the library.

Miss Hanamura was sitting at her desk near the entrance and was surrounded by a small flurry of books that floated and moved through the air to the other side of the library to their proper shelves. She stamped books then dropped them in the air where they took flight. She looked up at him, eyeing him through her glasses.

"Young man, aren't you supposed to be in class?" she asked sharply.

"My partner and I finished Potions early," Yanagi explained. "Professor Kurobe let us leave."

"Alright then. If you need anything, feel free to ask."

Yanagi was not going to ask her anything, but he appreciated the sentiment.

Yanagi spent his time selecting books from the shelves in the history section and then hid away in the corner where he would not be bothered. He had read every book on Rowena Ravenclaw and her house, and he had yet to find anything on the scroll or its contents. Many books mentioned that she designed Hogwarts Castle, but no books mentioned a scroll in the Room of Requirement with her sigil.

He was beginning to recycle old books that he had already read, but so far, he had not missed anything.

He carefully pulled the scroll out of his bag and a few sweets to snack on. He nibbled on a Chocolate Frog and read the bronze text in the center of the scroll, wondering what that could mean.

"'Breath of fire shall uncover another, the first clue to that of great wonder.'"

The second half of the riddle was fairly straightforward. Discovering what 'breath of fire' meant would reveal a clue that would lead them to something, the 'great wonder.' The problem lied in discovering what that 'great wonder' was and what 'breath of fire' meant.

Yanagi finished his Chocolate Frog and read the card. The irony failed to impress him as he stared at Rowena Ravenclaw's name. She was not in the card at the moment—magical paintings still confounded Yanagi. He read, "Considered to be one of the greatest witches in history, Rowena Ravenclaw is famous for being one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. In addition to her famed diadem, she is rumored to have collected every magical book in existence during her time, though the location of her collection has yet to be discovered."

Yanagi shoved the card into his bag to give to Marui and Jackal, who collected them, then picked up the scroll, struck with inspiration. He had noticed it when he first saw the scroll, but he hadn't thought much of it. The handwriting inside of Ravenclaw's sigil that read 'wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure' was the same as the riddle. That meant whoever wrote the text in the sigil also wrote the riddle on the scroll.

Yanagi packed the scroll and his sweets back into his bag and returned to the far corner of the library where the history section was located. He scaled a rolling ladder up to the tenth shelf where he found an old, thick book that smelled of dust and had faded writing along the spine, _Hogwarts: A History_.

He turned to the chapter on the founding of the school and skimmed until he found the portion on the house sigils.

" _Each founder created their own house sigil, though the sigil for the school was not created until after their deaths. The house sigils have not been changed since their creation though the school sigil has been changed numerous times, most notably—"_

If house sigils hadn't changed then Rowena Ravenclaw herself wrote the text inside the sigil, and if that handwriting matched the handwriting of the riddle—

Yanagi marked the page and closed the book, tucking it securely under his arm, and made to leave the library. He had to tell Yukimura and Sanada right away.

He checked out the book with Miss Hanamura, who said, "I thought for sure a book lover such as yourself would already own this book. Bring it back in two weeks or come get an extension."

In his hurry, he ran straight into Niou—Potions must be wrapping up, Yanagi thought—and they both dropped the books they were carrying. The books and the boys tumbled to the floor.

"I apologize, I was in a hurry," Yanagi said. He picked up the book nearest to him, a small but heavy tome with thick parchment pages. The silver script on the front read, _The Art of Human Transfiguration_. Niou grabbed Yanagi's book.

Yanagi and Niou stood up and swapped books.

"That is an interesting book," Yanagi said. With a blank expression, Niou shifted the book so his robes covered it. "I heard we don't learn human transfiguration until sixth or seventh year. Was it interesting?"

"It was enlightening."

When Yanagi did not say anything for a few seconds, Niou walked towards Miss Hanamura's desk to return the book.

There was something peculiar about Niou that Yanagi had yet to place. He spoke in a detached way and seemed to direct attention away from himself. He was able to disappear like a shadow in a room full of people. He would rather hide his talents than show them off, whatever talents they may be (he was particularly strong in Transfiguration and Charms, according to Yukimura).

But now was not the time to think about his housemates. Yanagi hurried back to the common room, his book clutched tightly at his side. He swiftly made his way through the maze in the dungeons, nearly running until he stopped suddenly in front of the blank wall.

" _Vipera berus_ ," he said breathlessly, the stones rearranging to form the opening to the common room.

The common room was getting colder and colder with each passing day. The prefects had put up heating spells, which lasted for several hours before fading away and forcing the Slytherins to wear multiple layers and wrap themselves in blankets. Seats in front of the fire were fought for with long glares, bribes, and minor blackmail. Yukimura was always able to get a seat if he wanted one, but today Sanada and he were in front of one of the lakebed windows where a long, dark silhouette swam by without making a sound.

Yanagi approached them slowly as to not draw attention to their group.

"We wondered where you went after Potions," Sanada said. "You weren't in the room."

"I went to the library," Yanagi said.

"Without us?" Yukimura said.

Yukimura did not look hurt, but he did look confused. Sanada had a similar expression of mild confusion. Yanagi realized he did something out of the ordinary by going by the library himself. The scroll was their project. They worked on it together.

"Yes, I apologize, but I found something interesting while I was there."

In unison, Yukimura and Sanada asked, "What?"

"I'll explain in the room," Yanagi said, looking around subtly to see if anyone was listening in. The common room was not the best location for private conversations.

They went down the right corridor to their room, locked the door with a charm just to be sure no one would bother them, and sat in a tight circle on Yanagi's bed.

"So what did you find?" Yukimura asked eagerly.

"All this time, I thought it was a Ravenclaw student that wrote the scroll and hid it," Yanagi said. "I never considered the possibility of the scroll being older than that."

"I never know what you mean when you talk like this," Sanada said, frowning.

"Rowena herself wrote the scroll," Yanagi said. He took the scroll and book out of his bag and pointed to the bronze sigil in the corner. "See here? The handwriting inside her sigil is the same as the handwriting in the center of the scroll. I read in this"—he took _Hogwarts: A History_ out of his bag, opening to the marked page—"that the house symbols were created by the founders and have not been changed since. The handwriting on the scroll matches the handwriting on the Ravenclaw house sigil, which Ravenclaw created. It's only logical to assume that Rowena Ravenclaw herself wrote this scroll."

"Does that mean you figured out what 'breath of fire' means?" Yukimura asked eagerly.

"Or what the 'great wonder' is?" Sanada asked.

Yanagi sighed. "Unfortunately, I don't know what 'breath of fire' means, but I do have a theory about the great wonder."

Yanagi reached into his bag for a third time and found the Chocolate Frog card. He handed it to Sanada, who said, "I don't collect these."

"Read it," Yanagi said.

Yukimura leaned against Sanada to read over his shoulder. Yanagi could pinpoint the moment Yukimura understood what he was implying: Yukimura's head whirled around, his eyes wide.

"You think it's her library," Yukimura said.

"Ravenclaw designed the castle," Yanagi said. "She could have designed a hidden room to house her collection. Her house values knowledge above anything else. I don't believe she would hide all that knowledge without leaving a way to find it."

Sanada frowned. "The card said people only _think_ she had a library—we don't know if it actually exists."

"That is true," Yukimura said thoughtfully, "but I agree with Yanagi about the handwriting. Rowena Ravenclaw wrote this scroll. Where else would Ravenclaw have wanted to lead future students of hers?"

The three fell into silence. Yanagi could not think of any other place or object that Rowena Ravenclaw would feel the need to leave a map to.

Yanagi was still unsure of his theory, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted it to be true. He knew it was outrageous, but several months ago, the idea of him attending a school of magic had been outrageous. Now he brewed potions in class, flew on a broom for sport, and ate magnificent feasts that appeared out of nowhere in a castle. He refused to limit himself to what he thought was possible and impossible.

After a long while, Yukimura said, "Even if it does lead to some lost library, we still need to solve the riddle."

Yanagi nodded. "Of course."

"Genichirou and I are going home for winter break, but we might find something in our parents' libraries. Genichirou's parents are sure to have dozens of rare books in their library."

"I'm not allowed in my parents' library," Sanada said.

"You say that like it's going to stop us," Yukimura said easily with a smile. "Come on, now, let's go to lunch. We still have some time before Charms. I'm starving and we have Quidditch practice this afternoon."


	10. The Second Riddle

**The Second Riddle**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

Winter came all at once early in December when Hogwarts was covered in several feet of snow over night. The lake had frozen solid and sheets of ice and snow slid off the roofs and piled around the grounds.

Kikumaru from Hufflepuff had started a snowball fight with his friends that quickly spread throughout the grounds to students of every year, regardless of house. Marui had bewitched snowballs to aim at the back of Jackal's head, and Akutagawa had been seen stuffing a handful of snow down the back of Atobe's sweater by Yagyuu, who said Atobe's reaction was spectacular.

The holidays were fast approaching, as well. Excitement spread throughout the school and no one could wait for the upcoming break and festivities. Holly and other decorative greenery was strung from every corner of the Great Hall, and older students hung up mistletoe in hopes of catching that special someone underneath a doorway.

Even the Slytherin common room had been decorated for the holidays. An impressive, perfectly trimmed pine tree wider than it was tall appeared in the corner over night, fully decorated with rows of silver tinsel and intricate ornaments. No one knew where it had come from, though Akiteru smiled almost knowingly when asked by Sanada at breakfast, and Yukimura came to the conclusion that even the prefects had a soft spot for the holiday season.

Though the students were ready for the holidays, classes were far from over and winter break seemed further away with each new assignment and exam. Professor Binns assigned twelve inches on the Werewolf Code of Conduct, and Professor Reyna told them to be prepared for a demonstration on the Jelly-Legs Jinx next class. They were all miserable during Astronomy, which was held outside on top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight when it often snowed. They spent their breaks studying Transfiguration with Yagyuu and Niou, and were sometimes joined by Jackal and Marui, who always brought along enough snacks and sweets to share with everyone.

Charms, however, remained the same as always. Professor Watanabe postponed their lessons on the Severing Charm to teach them how to enchant snowballs. He was rather impressed to learn that Marui already knew the spell. They spent their class in the central courtyard flinging snowballs at one another and building defensive forts that would make even Professor Reyna proud. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi joined together with Yagyuu and went head to head with Atobe, Oshitari, Taki, and Akutagawa—who had given up on magical enchantment and threw his snowballs by hand with startling accuracy and power. Afterwards, Professor Watanabe took them inside, taught them a drying charm, and then served them hot chocolate and cookies. It was by far the most carefree Charms class they had ever had.

When they weren't in class, or studying, or trying to decipher the riddle, Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi were practicing Quidditch.

The weekend before the last week of class, Slytherin had their second match of the season against Hufflepuff, who had lost to Gryffindor a few weeks ago. Once again, every house besides Slytherin was siding with Hufflepuff.

Yukimura was sick of the blind discrimination. He told Sanada and Yanagi just that during breakfast the day of the match.

"People fear the ambitious," Yanagi said.

"And sometimes what people say about us is true," Sanada said. "Captain Imayoshi was telling us all these violent, sneaky plays and none of us said anything about it."

"Those plays were _cunning_ ," Yukimura said defensively, "and completely legal. I checked after practice."

"Not everyone thinks like you, Seiichi."

Yanagi nodded in agreement. "To some, cunningness isn't a way to get ahead, it's a way to push others down."

Yukimura scowled and ate his eggs.

Yukimura and Yanagi did not have to pester Sanada to eat like they had before their first match. Marui and Jackal came over to wish them luck, and Yukimura refocused his energy on the upcoming match. Quidditch, he thought, was far more important at the moment.

* * *

A path had been cleared from the castle to the Quidditch Pitch, the snow stacked up above their heads on either side of them. Students piled into the stands in large numbers despite the weather. It was not snowing outside, but it was bitterly cold, making their breath visible and their noses red. Yukimura was glad their Quidditch robes were thick with extra layers, or he feared he would have frozen to his broom mid-game.

As the Slytherin team prepared in the locker room, their captain Imayoshi got their attention. Imayoshi was a tall, skinny boy with acne scars and bristly brown hair that came to his shoulders. He had an ugly sneer that he only showed around students in the other houses, particularly muggle-borns. He was skilled on a broom and a decent enough leader to get a bunch of Slytherins to listen to him without them all secretly plotting to undermine his authority. Or if the team was trying to undermine Imayoshi, Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi were not involved in the plans.

"Hufflepuff is stupider than Ravenclaw, who have that mud-blood Masters girl leading them," Imayoshi said, practically spitting the foul word. Imayoshi wasn't even a pure-blood, or Yukimura would have learned his name at a very young age, but he did come from a magical family that thought themselves better than most half-bloods and muggle-borns due to their lengthy magical history, which was short and insignificant compared to Sanada's. Imayoshi had no right to pretend he was better than anyone else based on his blood—no one had the right to pretend they were better for their blood.

Yukimura glared at his captain's back, waiting for the day Imayoshi was gone and he was captain. He would take it by force if that wouldn't give him a bad reputation with other students. His fellow Slytherins might appreciated a cunning rise to power, but the rest of the houses, which were already quick to hate him without even knowing him, did not need another reason to dislike him.

"If you're forceful, we will win," Imayoshi went on, his voice increasing in volume. "Beaters, I want you to aim for their broom twigs. Seeker, break your opponent's wrist if they're going for the Snitch."

Yukimura wondered if Imayoshi even knew their names.

"And us?" Yukimura asked with a seemingly innocent smile. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi looked at their captain with unwavering gazes. Imayoshi did not say anything.

Eventually, with a tight jaw, Imayoshi said, "Play like you have been during practice."

From the Pitch, they could hear Professor Watanabe's booming voice, "And here comes my house onto the Pitch, Hufflepuff! They're ready to beat Slytherin to a pulp today. You can expect nothing less of my house. We are the best after all, isn't that right, Badgers!" He was nearly yelling as loud as the crowd. More meekly, he said, "Ah, I'm being scolded by Professor Sakaki for favoritism. Where is the Slytherin team?"

"Let's go," Imayoshi said.

They grabbed their brooms and entered the field. Yukimura could see his breath. His fingers felt numb, even with his gloves on. His face stung in the wind. He did not let it affect him.

"The Slytherin team enters the Pitch, led by sixth year captain Imayoshi. Slytherin lost their last match to Ravenclaw, but we saw some excellent plays from their first year Chasers. We'll see if those first years are consistent or one hit wonders."

Yukimura would show everyone they were far more than one hit wonders.

"Meanwhile, my team is looking to be more consistent this season, and I know they've been practicing hard because _some of them_ have been slacking off on their Charms homework—I'm looking at you, Johnson."

Yukimura mounted his broom and they took to the sky, fifteen people in total, counting Professor Ryuzaki who was once again referring the match.

"The Quaffle is up—Yukimura snatches it at the first possible moment, he's on the move—a pass to Sanada—to Yanagi—looks like the same strategy as last game but it's still working—back to Yukimura—Hufflepuff Beaters are trying but obviously not hard enough guys, c'mon! Slytherin approaching the goal—the Hufflepuff Chasers don't know who to mark—guys, show some effort—"

Yukimura circled around the goal posts, flying to the other side and catching a pass from Sanada on the far right and scoring. More than half the onlookers groaned.

"A goal from Yukimura! Slytherin is ahead ten to zero. The Quaffle goes to fourth year Hufflepuff Chaser Johnson—she's making good time, not handing over the Quaffle and risking an interception— _whoa_ —her broom is hit by a Bludger, she's spiraling, and Yanagi gets the Quaffle. Slytherin Chasers turning around, Hufflepuff struggling to keep up—look at that speed! Hurry it up, Badgers! Yanagi passes to Sanada—"

The Keeper knocked away Sanada's first toss with the end of his broom, but Yanagi caught the rebound and scored before the Keeper could react.

"Another ten points to Slytherin!" Professor Watanabe shouted in annoyance. "The score is twenty to zero."

Faster, Yukimura thought.

"Fifty to zero—Slytherin is on an unfortunate roll."

They had to be faster.

"C'mon Badgers, get it together! Slytherin scores _again_ —"

Much, much faster.

Sanada tossed the Quaffle to Yukimura, who flung it past Hufflepuff's Keeper into the goal. The stands groaned.

"One hundred to ten," Professor Watanabe said, his enthusiasm gone. The one-sided game obviously was not good entertainment. Yukimura did not think it was one-sided enough. "Still no sign of the Snitch."

Seventy more points. They needed seventy more points to be ahead by over one hundred and fifty.

"Oh, look at that, another ten points to Slytherin," Professor Watanabe droned. "Now Professor Sakaki is scolding me for lacking energy. When I was student, you used to yell at me for that all the time, Professor…"

Yukimura ignored the commentary.

The longer the match dragged on, the easier it became to score. The Hufflepuff Chasers were disheartened, as if they expected every pass to be intercepted (and nearly every one was), and the Beaters were running out of energy and their aim decreased significantly to the point where the Bludgers no longer came within five feet of Yukimura.

Soon the score was one hundred and sixty to ten. Yukimura was nearly ready to celebrate—they only needed one more goal then it didn't matter who caught the Snitch—when the worst thing possible happened.

The Hufflepuff's had the Quaffle. Professor Watanabe's voice sprang back to life, "Hufflepuff Seeker Misra is diving! She's spotted the Snitch! FLY BADGERS, FLY!"

The Hufflepuff Chaser that in possession of the Quaffle looked around for the Seeker and in her hurry, she fumbled the Quaffle. Yukimura flew in from below, catching it, Professor Watanabe still shouting for the Seeker to catch the Snitch. Yukimura turned and flew.

Yukimura did not know where Sanada and Yanagi were. It didn't matter.

The Hufflepuff Keeper had also been distracted. Yukimura flew along side the goal, tossing the Quaffle—it made it through the rings—Professor Watanabe was screaming.

"Misra has caught the Snitch! One hundred and fifty points to Hufflepuff. HUFFLEPUFF WINS!"

Yukimura circled the goal posts, hovering in the air, looking towards Professor Ryuzaki, who was shooting up yellow sparks. Yukimura smiled. Yellow sparks meant they had won.

"WHAT?" Professor Watanabe shouted. "Are you sure?"

Professor Ryuzaki sent another set of yellow sparks at the professors' stand.

"My robes are on fire!" There was a lot of commotion as the Charms professor snuffed out the flames. Breathless, Professor Watanabe said, "Change of plan, folks. Yukimura scores ten points for Slytherin seconds before the Snitch was caught, making the score one hundred and seventy to one hundred and sixty. Slytherin wins without catching the Snitch. What a disappointing—uh, I meant, _unexpected_ victory."

For the first time, the Slytherin's out cheered the other three houses combined. Perhaps it was because Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw had been stunned into silence. Yukimura would have been silent too if he was in the audience.

Yukimura flew over to Sanada and Yanagi, smiling broadly as he said, "I wasn't sure that last shot made it in time."

"Of course it was in time," Sanada said. "You made the shot."

"True," Yanagi agreed. "There was no need to worry."

Yukimura smiled contently, and was quickly surrounded by his remaining teammates, who were ecstatic in their victory.

* * *

Marui and Jackal were waiting for them by the castle, bundled in red and gold against the cold winter air. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi approached with large smiles and their heads held high.

It was a very different feeling from when they had lost. Yukimura no longer wanted to hide his face, or cast his eyes down to the ground, or shield his unpleasant emotions from his friends. Today, they had won. Yukimura deserved to be brimming with pride.

Yukimura liked feeling victorious, even if the three other houses would be glaring at them for weeks to come, though that was already the norm.

"Congratulations!" Marui said. "Jackal thought you were going to lose for a second. He had no faith in you."

"You were the one muttering, 'oh Merlin,' over and over again when the Seeker started diving, not me," Jackal said.

"Are we celebrating this time?" Yukimura asked before they could begin to bicker. "I was hoping you had gone down to the kitchens…"

"It was harder to get up to the castle because of the snow," Marui said, "but we can go down and get some stuff now."

"You should come with us—we never showed you where the kitchens were," Jackal said. He rubbed his gloved hands together. "Plus it's freezing out here and the basement is warm."

"The basement?" Yukimura asked. "Don't you mean the dungeons?"

Marui grinned. "Follow us."

Marui and Jackal led them down a flight of stone steps in the main hall, but instead of going down into the cold labyrinth of the dungeons, they entered a warm, broad stone corridor, brightly lit with torches, and decorated with cheerful paintings that were mainly of food. They passed a small nook with a stack of old barrels that smelled strongly like vinegar for some odd reason and approached a large portrait of a silver fruit bowl that looked real enough to eat.

"Wait out here for a minute," Jackal said. "Apparently the house elves don't give out food to just anyone—"

"They don't give it to Jackal," Marui cut in.

"But they like Marui for some reason," Jackal finished.

Marui shrugged. "I appreciate food."

"And it may scare them to see you."

Yukimura nodded. His house elf Pisky was often startled whenever they had guests over.

Marui and Jackal stopped in front of the portrait of the silver fruit bowl, and Jackal reached out to the portrait and tickled the painted green pear. To Yukimura's surprise, the pear squirmed and laughed, with a sound befitting of a pear, and then the fruit transformed into a protruding green doorknob. Jackal turned the doorknob and the portrait swung open like a door and the two Gryffindors walked through. The door closed behind them.

Sanada was looking thoughtfully at the painting. He said, "I think the grapes are frowning at me."

"The apples also look upset," Yanagi said very seriously, but Yukimura caught sight of Yanagi's small smile.

"Maybe someone bruised them?" Sanada suggested.

Several minutes later, Marui and Jackal came out.

"Mission successful," Marui said, smiling and hoisting up a basket of food.

They decided to eat in a hidden room that Yukimura had found during his explorations of the castle. It was a comfortable, circular room behind a tapestry on the fifth floor with plush, dark purple chairs and torches that magically lit upon entering. They sat on an intricate floor rug instead of the chairs because there were only three. It was a warm, inviting room with bookcases along the circumference of the room containing the most interesting books. There was not a single wandering spider or a speck of dust to be seen.

The elves from the kitchen had given them bottles of apple juice, sandwiches with thick slabs of meat and toppings, and warm, salty chips. There were chocolate cookies for dessert.

Yukimura had not realized how hungry he was until there was food in front of him. They ate quickly as they talked about the game.

"I've never seen a match like that," Marui said, mouth full of chips. "You rarely see matches where the winning team didn't get the Snitch."

"I still don't know much about Quidditch, but that was fun to watch," Jackal said. Yukimura often forgot that Jackal was a muggle-born. He would have to teach him Quidditch one day like he had taught Yanagi.

"I wonder if we'll be able to use the same strategy against Gryffindor," Yanagi said. "Their defense is stronger than Hufflepuff's and I think people are beginning to anticipate our quick passes."

"Gryffindor's offense is more aggressive too," Sanada added.

Yukimura reached for his juice, humming. "Hmm. We'll postpone planning for now. Though we will need to come up with something since there is only so much we can do when our Seeker is so…"

"Bad?" Sanada said.

"I was going to be more delicate," Yukimura said, though he had been thinking the same thing.

"You guys could win the Quidditch House Cup," Marui said. "Our house team is really strong, but you guys are awesome."

Yukimura sighed. "The problem is, the Quidditch House Cup isn't awarded to the team with the most wins, it's awarded to the team that wins by the most points. We need to win by a larger margin, but just managing a hundred and sixty point lead is difficult. By the time the other team catches the Snitch, we're down to a ten point victory."

Sanada and Yanagi nodded in agreement. They had talked about this in great length multiple times.

"That sounds complicated and boring," Marui said. He finished off his chips and began to eat Jackal's. Jackal sighed in a resigned sort of way, as though he was used to this. Marui kept talking, "Do you guys want to go and play in the snow after this? We still have all afternoon. I think the lake is frozen over. I heard about this spell to turn your shoes into ice skates from a fourth year and I'm sure a genius like me could do it no problem."

"Or we could play Exploding Snap in the Charms Corridor," Jackal suggested.

While Yukimura wanted to spend his Saturday with Marui and Jackal, they had yet to make any progress on the riddle since Yanagi discovered where the scroll had come from. At this rate, it would not matter if they learned that Rowena herself was still alive; the riddle was the key.

"We have other things to work on," Yukimura said vaguely. "Next time."

Marui frowned. "What does that mean? Last night you said the same thing. You can't have _that_ much homework—we're in the same classes."

"One of the professors gave us extra work," Yanagi lied.

Marui reached for a cookie. He looked at Yanagi for several seconds, then at Yukimura, and finally at Sanada, who looked away. Marui grinned and said, "Liars."

"Genichirou," Yukimura said, frowning.

"I can't lie," Sanada said. He blushed. "You know that, Seiichi."

Yukimura sighed. It was true. Sanada's mother headed the Auror Department and was a skilled Legilimens. Sanada gave up any hope of learning to lie when he was a small child. It was better to be honest and accept punishment in the Sanada house than to try and weasel your way out of whatever you did wrong.

"So what are you up to?" Marui asked. Jackal looked at them curiously.

Yukimura shared a look with Sanada and Yanagi. He could not read people's minds like Sanada's mother, but he seemed to understand his friends without using words, or at least believed that he could. They decided that Marui and Jackal were trustworthy enough to be let in on the secret.

"I was exploring the castle and I found something interesting in a room on the seventh floor corridor," Yukimura said as Yanagi dug through his bag for the scroll. "We think it's a map."

"A map?" Marui said excitedly. "Like a treasure map?"

"Of sorts," Yukimura said, smiling. "Though not the type of treasure you're thinking of."

Yanagi took out the scroll and uncurled it on the floor in front of them to unveil the bronze ink and Ravenclaw's house symbol. Marui and Jackal leaned over the scroll. The Gryffindors mumbled over the riddle:

"'Breath of fire shall uncover another," Jackal read, "'the first clue to that of great wonder.'"

Marui was so confused he mouthed several words Yukimura would never dare say in front of an adult.

"We have no idea what it means," Yukimura admitted.

"We think it's some type of riddle," Sanada said.

"There's probably some invisible ink on the parchment," Jackal said.

Yukimura and the others stared at him dumbly.

"Why do you say that?" Yanagi asked.

Jackal rubbed the back of his head, uncomfortable with the sudden attention. "It's just a guess, but fire lets off heat like breath, right? Some types of invisible ink react to heat—it makes the ink visible."

"How did you come up with that?" Sanada asked.

"My friends and I liked playing Sherlock Holmes. We always came up with riddles and games to play."

Yanagi nodded like this made sense. Yukimura felt left out, having no idea who this Sherlock Holmes person was or why that made Jackal's connection any more clear.

Jackal went on, "The riddle is telling you that you need to make the parchment hot so you can read whatever's there, the clue to the 'great wonder' or whatever."

Marui nodded, catching on. "And the riddle says 'uncover another,' which probably means another line of text, or another riddle."

"There _is_ a lot of blank parchment underneath the first riddle," Sanada said.

Yukimura wondered why they had not thought of something so simple. They had been looking for a specific spell when they should have been focusing on the scroll itself.

" _Lumos_ lets off a small amount of heat," Yanagi said.

"Yanagi, hold up the map," Yukimura said. He took his wand out of his robe and positioned it under the lifted scroll. " _Lumos._ "

The point of Yukimura's wand lit with a bright white light. As Yukimura slowly moved his wand under the scroll, new bronze ink began to appear underneath the first lines. The new lines of text were also in Ravenclaw's handwriting.

"Way to go, Jackal!" Marui said. "My genius must be rubbing off on you."

"I think that's all of it, Seiichi," Sanada said after awhile.

Yukimura tucked his wand back into his robes. They leaned over the scroll.

 _She is cold and he is hot.  
She lives in darkness and he lives in light.  
Speak of her then speak of him at the place where the twins stand tall,  
And thou shalt unlock the path to knowledge of all._

They stared at the riddle in silence for awhile, muttering over the words and trying to solve it, but no one came up with anything. It was more obscure than the first riddle and much longer.

"I hate riddles," Sanada said.

* * *

They stayed in the room behind the tapestry for nearly another hour trying to figure out the riddle. None of their ideas were any good, though Marui's were entertaining and imaginative.

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi walked to the common room without talking as they tried to piece together the riddle. Yukimura was beginning to think that Sanada was right—riddles were nearly as bad as sitting through Professor Binns' class on a Monday.

The stones of the wall shifted, revealing the common room. Professor Saito was inside the room and he was approaching them.

It was rare to see their head of house in the dungeons, let alone the dorms. Professor Saito believed students had a right to privacy in their personal lives and put a great deal of trust in the house prefects.

"I've been asked by the Substitute Headmaster to make a list of students who will be staying for the holidays," Professor Saito said.

"I will be staying," Yanagi said. Professor Saito nodded and began writing on a scroll with a delicate, long peacock quill—he had turned it into a sword during Transfiguration class last week.

Yukimura and Sanada looked at their friend.

"You're staying?" Yukimura asked. "You never mentioned that."

"My parents said they wouldn't mind if I stayed when I told them I had school work to do," Yanagi said, opening his eyes. He clearly meant the scroll.

Yukimura thought for a brief moment then turned to Professor Saito. "I will also be staying, Professor Saito." He looked at Sanada. "You are too, aren't you, Genichirou?"

Sanada nodded. "I'm staying too."

Professor Saito nodded as he wrote their names. "Quite the impressive Quidditch match today, boys. I did not expect first years to be so capable on their brooms."

"Thank you," Yukimura said with a proud smile.

"I do hope you stay with the team. It will be interesting to see what you will be able to accomplish by your seventh year."

Yukimura kept smiling, not saying a word. He had no intentions of publicizing his plan to become captain by third year, or his plans to win the Quidditch House Cup five years in a row.

A group of girls came in through the wall.

"Ah, if you will excuse me," Professor Saito said before he turned and left them to talk to the girls.

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi sat in the chairs in front of the fire.

"I thought you were both going home for winter break," Yanagi said, frowning slightly in confusion. "You mentioned it last month."

"That was the plan, but plans change," Yukimura said. "We can't just leave you here by yourself. Besides, we have the new riddle to work on."

"My mom will be mad. I told her I was coming home ages ago," Sanada said, frowning. He looked at Yukimura. "And Emiko will be upset."

Yukimura had thought about that, but he knew his sister would be okay. "Emiko will understand if I tell her I have work and that my friend is staying here—your mom will too. We'll write letters home tonight and stop by the owlery before class tomorrow."

They were just about to retire to their room when Akiteru came over, ruffling Sanada's hair and laughing. Akiteru was brimming with pride, as if he had won the Quidditch match himself.

"Way to go, Gen, Seiichi, Yanagi!" Akiteru released his hold on his brother. "That's the first match we've won in two years. All the sixth and seventh years are breaking out the fire whiskey. And I get to brag it was my little brother who helped win the match!"

Sanada frowned as he put his hair back in place. "Seiichi scored more goals than I did."

"And if you hadn't scored the goals you did, we wouldn't have had enough points," Yukimura said gently.

"Take credit for what you do," Akiteru said, looking at his younger brother. "Be proud of your achievements and your failures, or you'll never become any stronger than you are now."

Sanada frowned, confused by Akiteru's odd wisdom, but nodded.

Akiteru ruffled Sanada's hair back out of place, laughed at the look his brother gave him, and then headed off towards Professor Saito to ask about Transfiguration. Apparently Akiteru was still having a hard time turning fire into a corporeal snake.

As the trio headed back to their room for the night, Yanagi asked, "What is Christmas at Hogwarts like?"

Yukimura smiled. "I heard it's brilliant."


	11. Christmas

**Christmas**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

The majority of the castle's residents departed for winter break several days before Christmas. Students hurried towards the horseless carriages that carried students to Hogsmeade Station with their trunks in tow and good-byes shouted over their shoulders.

Akiteru said good-bye to Yukimura and Sanada during breakfast then rushed off to join a group of boys and girls comprised of students from all four houses. Yukimura watched curiously as the Slytherin boy slid seamlessly into the group.

With few exceptions, Slytherins talked primarily to other Slytherins. Fuji and Oshitari were notable as they both belonged to separate, large groups of friends with students from every house led by Tezuka and Atobe respectfully. But the fact still remained that most people in their house were disliked by everyone else overall, making it difficult to talk to students in other houses, let alone befriend them.

They finished breakfast quickly to say good-bye to Marui and Jackal, who would not be staying for break. They passed by Yagyuu and Niou, who were not talking but walking alongside one another towards the carriages.

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi could hear the Hogwarts Express' wailing whistle from the castle courtyard where they were practicing their Levitation Charm by putting together a snowman. Sanada didn't dare cast the charm after what happened in class—the last thing he needed was to send a snowball flying fifty feet into the air and have it come crashing down onto their heads—though he did help find tiny stones for the snowman's face and buttons.

Very few students had stayed at Hogwarts for the break. The Slytherin common room was all but empty and there was no longer any underhanded, passive-aggressive competition for the well sought after seats in front of the fire, though Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi had no time to spend in the common room.

The trio spent the days before Christmas in the library, leaving only to sleep and attend meals, which were far more depressing without Marui and Jackal coming over to arbitrarily pester them, or Fuji there to talk about plants, or Niou to ask about Transfiguration.

Eventually they became sick of the library and decided to explore the castle and grounds together. They walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest but did not dare go inside. The next day, they discovered that some plant in Greenhouse Four made horrible hissing noises from right after lunch to five thirty in the afternoon. Sanada and Yanagi would not let Yukimura go into the greenhouse and investigate what was making the noise, saying he would end up dead.

"Not if I'm careful," Yukimura said.

Sanada and Yanagi made Yukimura promise not to inspect the mysterious hissing plant.

On Christmas morning, Yukimura jumped out of bed out of his bed and onto Sanada's, kneeling next to the sleeping boy. "Genichirou, wake up. It's Christmas!"

Startled, Sanada sat up right. He drew his wand from under his pillow, saw Yukimura smiling, and then lowered it with a heavy sigh. He said, "Don't scare me like that."

"It's Christmas!" Yukimura repeated happily.

He moved to Yanagi's bed next, ready to jump on his friend to wake him up, when he saw that Yanagi was already sitting upright and was perfectly awake.

"You already woke me up," Yanagi said, smiling.

There was a large pile of neatly wrapped gifts at the bottom of each of their beds. At the foot of Yukimura's bed were boxes with large, bouncing silver bows and shiny, golden wrapping paper, and more obscure shapes in blue wrapping with moving snowflakes that piled in mounds at the creases, and a parcel wrapped in the third page of last week's _Daily Prophet_ , which was no doubt from Akiteru. Sanada's presents were very similarly wrapped while Yanagi's were wrapped in stationary paper, which was fascinated Yukimura.

The three sat on the floor of their room with their presents, making quick work of the intricate wrapping and carefully tied bows.

Yukimura received two gifts from Sanada: a small copper container with broom polish and a thick encyclopedia called _Magical Plants of the World Volume I_ , which had moving illustration that showed the plants in their various life stages. Yanagi gave him a strange muggle contraption to write with called a fountain pen, which had a small ink well inside of it.

Sanada opened his gift from Yanagi and stared at it. It was a black fabric thing that Yukimura recognized vaguely but did not know the name of.

"What is this?" Sanada asked.

"A baseball hat," Yanagi said. "You wear it on your head. I thought it would suit you. You don't have to wear it if you don't like it."

Sanada put the dark hat on his head with the flap hanging out over his eyes. He looked at Yanagi. "Is this right?"

Yanagi nodded.

"It does suit you," Yukimura said honestly. "Does it do anything special?"

"It keeps the sun from your eyes," Yanagi said, amused.

They finished opening their presents.

Yukimura's parents sent him several books on Quidditch he had asked for and a large amount of sweets; Emiko made him cookies, which tasted like she used salt instead of sugar; his house elf, Pisky, had knitted him a soft cream-colored hat. Sanada's parents sent Yukimura a new navy blue sweater with a heating charm. Akiteru gave him a book called _The Dark Arts Outsmarted_ with a note warning him not to try these spells in front of the professors or other students until at least fourth year, or they'll think he's up to something.

Sanada opened a small black book with gold leaf on the page edges and skimmed through it. The spine read _Countering Black Magic_. Yukimura assumed it was from his brother.

Yanagi had received a large stack of books that included Yukimura's gift, _The Complete Magical Herbalist_.

"We should move to the common room in front of the fire so we can all read," Yukimura said. "I want to read the book Akiteru gave me. I think it has some interesting spells in it."

Sanada and Yanagi seemed to think that was a brilliant idea. They each took the one or two books they were most eager to read, their warmest blankets, and several different types of treats, and went into the common room where they sunk into the large plush chairs in front of the warm fire with their legs tucked safely underneath them. They passed back and forth Emiko's cookies, the peppermint bark Mrs. Yanagi made, and the Glacial Snow Flakes from Yukimura's parents, but remained relatively silent as they read.

Before they knew it, hours had past, and it was time for dinner in the Great Hall. They tucked their belongings back into their dorm room then hurried through the dungeons and up the stairs to the feast.

Warm, dry snow fell from the enchanted ceiling and melted upon landing, and the student tables were scarcely filled. Slytherin had the least students with few others besides Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi.

The faculty table was nearly empty as well. There was Professor Reyna, who was dressed in black despite it being a holiday, Professor Watanabe, who looked like he had a bit too much fire whiskey, Professor Kurobe, and two children that Yukimura did not recognize.

There was a young boy, about nine years old, who was sitting next to Professor Kurobe at the faculty table at the front of the Great Hall. The boy had wavy dark brown hair that came down to his chin and bore the same light brown eyes as the professor. He was waving his hands as he told some grand story while Professor Kurobe listened intently and nodded with a gentle expression. Yukimura figured the boy was Professor Kurobe's son.

Further down the table, a young girl was standing on a chair to reach the potatoes on the opposite side of the table. She looked to be about seven years old. She had more red in her hair than the young boy and Professor Kurobe, but she had Professor Kurobe's long face and fair skin. She was just short of reaching the bowl of potatoes in front of Professor Reyna. With a blank expression, Professor Reyna slid the bowl closer to the girl's hands. The young girl grasped the bowl and returned to her seat on Professor Kurobe's other side. She must have been Professor Kurobe's daughter.

As expected, the feast was fantastic. There were fat roasted turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of peas, silver boats of gravy and cranberry sauce, and much more that made Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi eat well past their limits.

At the same time the desserts appeared—bowls of Christmas pudding, cakes three layers tall, fudge as thick as a book, and delicious chocolate pies—there was a loud blast like a canon. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi looked at the professors' table and saw a cloud of light blue smoke. Professor Kurobe was smiling at his children.

"What was that?" Yanagi asked, horrified.

"Wizard Crackers," Yukimura said. "They have hats and gifts inside. They sound like a canon."

Yanagi calmed down slightly, though still looked startled. "Muggles have those too."

"Really?" Sanada asked.

"Muggle crackers may be slightly different, though," Yanagi said as Professor Kurobe's daughter put on a large musketeer hat with a feather plume and his son held up a live kitten, asking to keep it. "Ours come with paper hats and certainly don't have live animals. They're also much quieter."

"How strange," Yukimura said. Muggle life fascinated him. He had already asked Yanagi all about muggle Christmas, and in turn told Yanagi everything he need to know about wizard Christmas to help Yanagi keep up appearances and to satisfy his friend's boundless curiosity.

Professor Kurobe's daughter gave her hat to Professor Reyna, who wore it with a comically straight face. The professor had to blow air out of the corner of her mouth to keep the feather out of her face.

Yukimura was nearly done with his third bowl of pudding when Professor Kurobe's children approached them.

The boy was holding the white kitten in his arms while his sister carried armfuls of colorful tubes with twisted ends—Wizard Crackers.

"Our dad told us to pass these out to everyone!" the young girl said with a bright smile. She was missing several teeth. Yukimura suddenly missed his little sister terribly and made note to write her a letter before break ended wishing her a happy Christmas and new year.

"Thank you. Happy Christmas," Yukimura said. The two children echoed him then went further down the Slytherin table where a lone fourth year was sitting.

Yukimura looked up at the staff table where Professor Kurobe nodded, smiled, and lifted his cup in a wordless toast.

They opened their crackers together with three echoing canon blasts loud enough to make their ears ring. Yukimura's cracker spit up red and green bits of confetti, while live song birds flew out of Sanada's, and Yanagi's produced a long phoenix feather quill.

Yukimura dusted off the top hat that came with his and put it on Sanada's head, smiling. "Perfect fit, don't you think?"

Sanada blushed and took off the hat. "I like the hat Yanagi gave me more."

* * *

After the feast had ended, Yukimura decided to take a walk around the castle. Sanada and Yanagi chose not to join him.

"I want to take a bath," Sanada said. He still had bits of confetti from Yukimura's Wizard Cracker in his hair.

"And I want to look over the book you gave me a bit more," Yanagi said. "Magical plants are quite different from muggle plants…"

"Seiichi can go on for days about plants," Sanada said.

"I wouldn't mind listening."

Yanagi looked at Yukimura, who smiled and said, "I won't be long."

There was little of the visible castle that he had yet to explore. He did not know how many more rooms remained hidden from him. Until just recently, he had not known where the kitchens were located. There was still much to find and he was determined to find it all.

He walked through the long corridor to the Astronomy Tower and passed the Grey Lady, who nodded but did not stop to talk. She was the least sociable of the ghosts, rarely talking to students even within her own house, and there was little about her in the history books. There was more about every other ghost than the Grey Lady.

At the bottom of the Astronomy Tower, in a circular room with a ascending spiral staircase, he found small, worn out gems that looked as old as the castle embedded into the stones in the walls—one was a moon and one was a sun. He ran his fingers along the sun, the stone rough beneath his fingers.

"You have been lurking where you should not."

A woman's voice.

Yukimura turned.

The Grey Lady had followed him. Like all ghosts, she was pale, nearly white, and wore clothes from her time period some hundred years ago. She looked frighteningly familiar though Yukimura did not know to whom. He was sure he had seen her face before…

"I'm not lurking," Yukimura said.

"I do not know what you wish to do with what you find at the end of your path, but I advise you to stop searching. If you do not, you may come to regret it in the future."

"Are you threatening me?" Yukimura asked calmly.

"No. In this form I hold no power in the mortal world. I can only offer guidance." The Grey Lady swept into the Astronomy Tower. As she approached, the temperature dropped. Yukimura felt his skin bump. "What is lost should remain lost, and what is dead should remain dead. You have been warned."

"Warned of what?"

"That is for you to discover, though I hope you do not in the end." The Grey Lady turned to float back the way she came. "Tell your father I send my regards."

Yukimura stepped after her, only once, before he regained his composure. He would not go chasing a ghost for answers about his history.

"You knew my father?" he asked quickly. "He never mentioned you."

The ghost paused. She looked over her shoulder, her once-dark hair spilling over her shoulder. He was sure of it now—he had seen her somewhere—but he still did not know where.

"Your father was sorted into my house," the Grey Lady said. "He was one of the brightest wizards of his generation, though a poor spell caster. You are not cursed, nor is your family, if that is your question. I told your father the same. He did not seem to believe me, no matter how many times I assured him."

Yukimura paused. He nodded.

The ghost turned and left.

Yukimura lingered in the Astronomy Tower for several moments, rethinking the Grey Lady's advice, then left to return to the common room.

Why should Ravenclaw's library be lost, and what did that have to do with the dead remaining dead? Was the Grey Lady even talking about the library at all? And if she knew about the library, why wasn't she pointing students from her own house towards it?

There were too many possibilities, too many questions, and unlike exploring the castle, he felt as though he did not have six years to figure out the answers.

He reached the common room before he knew it. He sat next to Sanada in front of the fire, tucking his legs against his chest and frowning in deep thought, but did not say anything to his friends about the matter.

Sanada and Yanagi looked up from their books to look at him.

"You're thinking about something strange," Sanada said, obviously concerned. His hair was still damp from his bath. "I can tell."

There was no use hiding this from them. He asked, "Do you think there could be something bad in Ravenclaw's lost library? Something dark, something that should remain hidden?"

Sanada frowned deeply; he was clearly as confused as Yukimura was about the whole thing.

"I thought there would be books in it," Sanada said.

"I essentially thought the same," Yanagi said. "What else would the map lead to?"

Yukimura hummed in thought. He could not think of an answer.

"Why are you asking?" Yanagi asked.

"The Grey Lady—Ravenclaw's ghost—stopped me when I near the Astronomy Tower and told me to stop lurking."

"Were you lurking?" Sanada asked with a judgmental look that meant he clearly thought Yukimura was lurking.

Yukimura didn't answer Sanada's question. He said, "She told me 'what is lost should remain lost, and what is dead should remain dead.'" Yukimura looked between his friends. "What could that mean?"

"Lost knowledge?" Yanagi suggested.

"I thought the same thing," Yukimura said, "but why would the ghost of Ravenclaw, a house that values knowledge, tell me to let the knowledge fade out? And what did she mean about mentioning the dead?"

"Does it even matter what a ghost told you?" Sanada asked. "We'll find the library or whatever this scroll is leading us to eventually."

Yukimura knew that Sanada was right; thinking about what the scroll led to would not change what they found. They have time to dwell on the Grey Lady's cryptic warning. He had the second riddle to solve and he was eager to learn the spells in the books Akiteru had given him and Sanada.


	12. Yagyuu's Assistance

**Yagyuu's Assistance**

 _Yanagi Renji_

Akiteru had not been joking when he said the books he had given Yukimura and Sanada could get them into trouble with the professors. They had had a hard time finding spells that were tamer and more suited to their level of skill, though many were far above a normal first year's capabilities, leading Yanagi to believe that Akiteru had more than enough confidence in his brother and Yukimura's skill as wizards.

Even though Yanagi knew the books were meant to teach you how to defend yourself in a life-or-death situation, some of the spells were absolutely horrible. Some involved conjuring chains that wrapped around your opponent's neck, while others involved creative uses of the Severing Charm they had learned in Charms class. The worst of them involved removing all of the bones in a person's body. Yanagi was glad Yukimura flicked past the pages with the most gruesome pictures.

"We'll work our way up to the more aggressive ones," Yukimura said in passing. Yanagi looked at Sanada, wondering if he had any idea what Yukimura considered aggressive. Judging by Sanada's shrug, Yanagi concluded that Sanada did not know either.

They managed to master three new spells before their classmates returned from break. The first spell made an opponent unable to stand without falling over while the second spell shot out a spider web, trapping the opponent's arms at their sides and preventing them from countering. The final spell created sparks from their wands that targeted their opponent, chasing them until they erupted with the force of a small canon. They practiced in one of the hidden study rooms in the Slytherin common room on mannequins that repaired themselves after being hit.

When everyone else returned to Hogwarts, classes began and they fell into their usual pattern. Everyone was eagerly anticipating the first Quidditch match of the New Year, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff, which Gryffindor was expected to win. The match was on Valentine's Day, which was fast approaching.

"Professor Ryuzaki used to be on the Gryffindor team when she was a student," Marui said.

They were in the room behind the tapestry on the fifth floor waiting for their afternoon classes to start. Yanagi made last minute revisions on his Astronomy homework that was due later that night with Jackal while Marui, Yukimura, and Sanada talked Quidditch.

"What position did she play?" Yukimura asked.

"Probably Beater," Sanada said.

"Keeper, actually," Marui said. "She mentioned it when we had flying lessons with Hufflepuff. She started talking to Tezuka, who was second only to me, saying she heard about what happened during tryouts and how she couldn't believe Hufflepuffs would be so mean to a first year."

Tezuka had been hit by one of his makeshift teammates during tryouts after standing out too much. He had not made the house team. Yanagi doubted Professor Watanabe made the final decision and concluded that the captain had chosen not to put Tezuka on the team.

Sanada narrowed and fixed his gaze at Marui. "Tezuka is a good flyer. He's better than most first years. He wouldn't be worse than you."

Marui furrowed his eyebrows, off put by Sanada's sudden seriousness.

"No need to be so intense," Marui said, blowing a bubble that was a mix of yellow and purple. Like Yanagi, Jackal glanced up from his Astronomy homework to watch the situation. "And how would you know? You've never seen me fly."

Yukimura smiled easily and happily, and diffused the tense situation by saying, "I guess we're quite lucky Tezuka didn't make his house team."

"We would have won either way," Sanada said. "I would never lose to him."

"I heard he hurt himself," Jackal said, jumping into the conversation, not even pretending to pay attention to his homework anymore.

"I know he was hit by a Bludger," Yukimura said, "but I didn't think he had any serious injuries. Where did you hear that?"

"Kawamura and I were talking one night," Jackal said. "He's one of our roommates and he's friends with Tezuka, Fuji, Inui, Oishi, Kikumaru…"

"I know the group," Yukimura said.

Yanagi knew them as well. They were one of the few groups with students from every house. Tezuka and Kikumaru were in Hufflepuff, Fuji in Slytherin, Inui and Oishi in Ravenclaw, and Kawamura in Gryffindor.

"Kawamura just said Tezuka got hurt during tryouts," Jackal said, shrugging.

"He can still fly though," Marui said. "He did fine during flying lessons."

Yukimura and Sanada exchanged a look that was usually only shared between them and not extended to Yanagi.

That's why he was surprised when Yukimura and Sanada silently turned and looked at him. He was always surprised when they included him. He was their friend, but Yukimura and Sanada had a friendship all their own.

"Did you guys have any luck figuring out the riddle on that freaky scroll over break?" Marui asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Yanagi said.

They had read everything they could find on Rowena Ravenclaw and had come up with nothing, so they switched to reading about the history of the castle itself, hoping to discover where the twins stood tall, but had no luck with that either. They spent their remaining days in the common room practicing new spells and working off their frustration over the riddle.

Yanagi was beginning to wonder if the lost library was in Hogwarts Castle at all, or if once again, they were missing the obvious.

* * *

The days leading up to Valentine's Day and the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match were cold, gloomy, and misty. The snow had stopped and was replaced with rain, leaving the grounds damp and wet, their shoes squelching in the mud as they walked. Fog rolled across the hills in thick blankets, making it nearly impossible to walk to the greenhouses for Herbology without someone lighting their wand.

Older students were making plans for the Hogsmeade trip, which was being held after the Quidditch match on Saturday. Marui excitedly explained how he convinced a fifth year in his house to buy him sweets.

"I'm getting Chocoballs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Jelly Slugs. I just have to give him ten extra sickles!" Marui said with a large smile. "And I just picked up some extra money last weekend when I beat Shishido at gobstones—first years were having a tournament in the common room and I kicked major arse."

"He's not exaggerating for once," Jackal said. "Surprisingly."

The day before Valentine's Day, as Yanagi, Yukimura, and Sanada were headed to breakfast with plans to study for their Herbology exam before class (they had to differentiate between different types of poisonous plants in Greenhouse Five), when Akiteru stopped them at the common room exit.

Despite how much Yukimura and Sanada talked about him, Yanagi did not know much about Sanada Akiteru. He had a striking resemblance to his younger brother, but smiled more and did not seem so easily flustered. He had friends in every house; even the pure-bloods were friendly with him, though he did not seem to be overly enthusiastic to return their attention.

Yanagi, Yukimura, and Sanada stopped in front of the common room exit where the prefect stood.

"I need to check your bags," Akiteru said.

Yukimura frowned and asked, "Why?"

"In case anyone is stupid enough to drop a love potion into someone's tea."

"We're first years," Sanada said with a blank face, his voice filled with confusion.

"Just because you don't acknowledge the fairer sex doesn't mean other people can't, Gen," Akiteru said with a teasing grin that had his brother blushing.

"Does that mean you're seeing someone?" Yukimura asked in jest.

Akiteru cleared his throat, causing Yukimura to raise his eyebrows and Sanada's eyes to widen. In an obvious ploy to change the topic, Akiteru said, "Saito is being cautious this year and told us prefects to check everyone, even first years. You guys may not care about love just yet, but you may be used as potion mules by the older students."

Yukimura hummed curiously, and then handed over his bag. "You sound as though this has happened before."

While searching briefly through Yukimura's bag, as if he knew Yukimura could commit no wrong, Akiteru said, "We have a girl who's part Veela in our house and people are always trying to pull something over on her. Last year, someone tried to put a love potion in her tea and, well, no one can prove it was her because when they found the guy a week later in the Forbidden Forest, he had no memory of what happened."

Yanagi smiled, wondering if Akiteru was kidding, but quickly realized that he was not. He stopped smiling.

"Veela?" Yukimura said. "You don't mean Kirihara, do you?"

Akiteru nodded. "I guess you would know her, Seiichi, since your parents taught you all about the pure-blood families."

"I wouldn't call her a pure-blood," Yukimura said, slowly, almost cautiously. Yanagi listened carefully; Yukimura did not often talk about other pure-bloods. "The fact that they have Veela blood has alienated them. They aren't technically full-fledged pure-bloods anymore. The family has lost all its power and status since then."

"That would explain why she's got such a nasty personality—I would too if all the pure-bloods in Slytherin were out for my neck."

"Nasty personality?" Sanada asked.

"She's a hardcore blood purist," Akiteru said simply. Yukimura and Sanada nodded stiffly while Yanagi did not grasp the gravity of what Akiteru just said. "She's called me a blood-traitor more times than I can count, and last year, Reyna kicked her out of Dueling Club for calling Tokugawa a mud-blood."

At the mention of the word mud-blood, Sanada glanced at Yanagi, who nearly sighed in exasperation. Sanada was easier to read than a mirror. If the idea of a muggle-born in Slytherin weren't so preposterous, everyone would have discovered the secret of his birth ages ago. However, since coming to Hogwarts, Yanagi only knew of a handful of other muggle-born Slytherins, none of which were treated kindly by all of their pure-blood housemates.

The fact that racist and bigoted people existed did not surprise Yanagi. It was the same in the muggle world, after all. What bothered him was the number of Slytherins that sat by and watched it happened. The majority of Slytherins did not call others mud-bloods, or blood-traitors, but they did not stop the few who did. It was taboo to use the word mud-blood, but it also felt as though calling out someone for using it was just as odd and looked down upon.

Akiteru finished searching Yukimura's bag then took Sanada's and finally Yanagi's. It wasn't until Yanagi had handed over his bag did he realize that he would have to explain the scroll.

He wondered if he could pass it off as homework, or extra work from Professor Kurobe. Would Yukimura be able to come up with a better lie? He was much better at thinking on his feet than Yanagi, who seemed to panic and lose his ability to think logically in unfamiliar or overwhelming situations.

He worried for nothing. After a brief search, Akiteru handed back Yanagi's bag and ushered forward the next group of students behind them.

In the corridor, Yanagi found the courage to ask something that been on his mind since Quidditch tryouts. Their teammates had made several cruel, vague remarks about Sanada's brother and family. Even before then, when Yukimura had introduced Sanada on the train, he had told Yanagi that Sanada was a pure-blood and to ignore what everyone else said.

"Sanada," Yanagi said cautiously, "why would your brother be called a blood-traitor?"

"My family isn't pure-blood, but we are old magic," Sanada said, looking concentrated but not ashamed. "We have the same social status and wealth as the remaining pure-blood families, but not the title. Some people call us blood-traitors because my ancestors have sided with muggle-borns, or married half-bloods or even muggles."

That would explain the remarks made about Sanada at Quidditch practice, and why Sanada's name was not on the list of households on the tapestry of pure-blood families that hid the room on the fifth floor.

"It explains quite a bit, doesn't it?" Yukimura said, as if he could read Yanagi's mind, though Yanagi knew that was not true; Yukimura merely had a gift for reading people's body language and deducing what they were thinking.

"You can ask anything you want about my family," Sanada said, looking at Yanagi. "I don't mind."

Yanagi nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

They hurried to breakfast and sat at the Slytherin table with Fuji, Oshitari, and Niou.

"Why aren't any of you studying?" Yukimura asked as he filled a plate with fruit, eggs, ham, and toast. "We have an exam in Herbology today, don't we?"

"We do," Fuji assured. "I already knew all about poisonous plants before we were taught in class."

Niou gave Fuji a sideways glance, but continue to eat without saying anything.

"Mukahi cornered me after Charms the other day and forced me to study with him," Oshitari said, sighing heavily. "He is hopeless at Herbology."

"Niou, why aren't you studying?" Yukimura asked.

Surprisingly, Niou gave a short answer between bites of eggs, "Studied with Yagyuu."

Yukimura seemed to glow with pride and success, no doubt for getting Niou to talk, which was no easy task.

Yanagi opened his copy of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ for a bit of last minute studying while spooning oatmeal into his mouth and listening to the others talk. Quidditch, classes, and Valentine's Day were the main topics, with a fair bit of complaining about their History of Magic Essay that was due at the end of the week.

The first year Slytherins left the Great Hall together and met up with the first year Hufflepuffs on their way to the greenhouses.

Yanagi and Sanada sat next to their partner. The Hufflepuff squeaked when they arrived, moving her books as close to her as possible, as though she feared they would hex her if she got in their way.

Sanada frowned at her reaction to their arrival. Yanagi smiled politely at her and she returned it before quickly looking at the desk.

Professor Vega came into the greenhouse (today his long gray beard had bits of lavender and several full rosebuds) and put a pot on each of their desks, one per a group. Yanagi immediately recognized their colorful plant as hellebore.

Professor Vega was still handing out plants when he said, "You have twenty minutes to identify your plant and write a short essay on its properties—most notably whether or not it makes a delicious tea, or a deadly poison. Your time has already begun."

* * *

Though the school was not covered in over the top, garish decorations, several of their classes were affected by the upcoming holiday.

They learned the basics of love potions in Potions, and were assigned twelve inches on Ashwinder eggs and another eight on Moonstone to be due after the weekend.

"But the Quidditch match is this weekend!" someone said. "Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff!"

"The match is one portion of one day of your weekend," Professor Kurobe said, his voice firm and eyes narrow. He was obviously not swayed. "Eighteen inches is not the end of the world. Now, someone wake up Akutagawa, and hurry along to your next class."

Yukimura complained that his hand was going to fall off once he was done with his essays, though Yanagi assured him that was impossible and he would help him with his references.

"Could you help me too?" Sanada asked. "I lost points on the last assignment for not doing my footnotes properly."

Yanagi smiled and nodded. "I'm happy to help when it comes to Potions."

In Charms, they learned to produce paper hearts from the tips of their wands. Half the class ended up with paper cuts, and at some point the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins began firing sprays of red and pink hearts at each other until the room was covered in several inches of colorful paper. Professor Watanabe cleaned up the mess at the end of class with a flick of his wand and gave them all chocolate hearts.

"I bet he got these from the kitchens," Mukahi muttered to Oshitari. "The Great Hall has mountains of these things." Mukahi took a bite of his chocolate anyways.

"I never want to see another heart again," Sanada said as they left the classroom.

Yukimura asked, "Does that mean I can have your chocolate, Genichirou?"

Sanada blushed. "I already ate it."

Yanagi and Yukimura laughed softly.

They agreed to spend their break before their next class in the courtyard reading all of the books they had received for Christmas. So far, Yanagi hadn't made so much as a dent in his stack, since they had spent most of break reading the defense books from Akiteru. Yanagi had several muggle novels courtesy of his parents and sister, and he was eager to read books from the world he grew up in.

It had been weeks since he had read anything that was solely related to muggles, and it was not for lack of trying. He searched the library from top to bottom for muggle books, hoping to keep up with his muggle studies likes math and English, but he had found nothing. Anything written by a muggle was stored in the Restricted Section, according to Miss Hanamura, and anything about muggles was horribly inaccurate.

They found a dry, relatively warm spot under the sun in the main courtyard and sat down, pulling out their books and beginning to read. Yanagi had hardly made it through three pages when Yagyuu and Niou approached them.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Yagyuu asked politely. "Akutagawa couldn't solve the riddle and fell asleep in front of the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower so no one can get in. We're waiting for Atobe or someone else to wake him up."

Yukimura looked at Niou, silently asking why he was here with Yagyuu if he wasn't in Ravenclaw. Niou sighed and said, "I'm just bored." Niou gave Yukimura a level look, as if daring him to question his answer. Yukimura didn't.

Yanagi looked at Yagyuu and asked, "Are you saying Ravenclaws need to solve riddles to get into their common room?"

Yagyuu nodded. "Yes. An eagle asks us and refuses to let us in unless we can answer it. It's quite annoying, honestly. Akutagawa is constantly asleep outside the common room, Konjiki hugs you if you help him, and I've heard rumors that Shiraishi sneaks Chitose into the Hufflepuff dorms when Chitose can't solve it…"

Yanagi glanced at Yukimura, whose eyes seemed to widen, and Yanagi knew that Yukimura understood his line of thinking. If Ravenclaws had to solve a riddle every time they wanted into the common room, they had to be fairly well versed in solving them.

"Do you think you could help us with a riddle?" Yukimura asked.

Yagyuu adjusted his glasses. "I suppose I could look at it."

Instead of showing Yagyuu and Niou the scroll, Yukimura took out a spare bit of parchment and a quill and wrote the riddle from memory. He handed over the paper to Yagyuu, who frowned in concentration.

 _She is cold and he is hot.  
She lives in darkness and he lives in light.  
Speak of her then speak of him at the place where the twins stand tall,  
And thou shalt unlock the path to knowledge of all._

"The first two lines could mean any number of things by themselves," Yagyuu said, "but the third line about the twins gives away the answer. 'She' is the moon and 'he' is the sun—they're often depicted as brother and sister, often twins, in different cultures."

Yukimura looked at Yanagi and Sanada. "Do you think speaking of her then speaking of him means casting sunlight and moonlight?"

Yanagi nodded eagerly. "Yes, I think so. We learned the spell for sunlight in Herbology."

" _Lumos Solem_ ," Yukimura said. "And I know moonlight, _Lumos Lunae_."

"But where do the twins stand tall?" Sanada asked.

They looked at Yagyuu, who handed back the paper to Yukimura and said, "Sorry, I have no idea what that is referring to. I wish I could help more."

"No, thank you," Yukimura said. "You've been very helpful."

Yanagi nodded in agreement.

Yagyuu set his bag on the ground and sat down. Niou did the same, pulling out a thick book titled _The Body Transfigured_ and a sugar quill. For as many sweets as Niou ate, Yanagi thought the boy would get along better with Marui, who had an equally bad sweet tooth.

It was difficult for Yanagi to go back to reading _The Complete Magical Herbalist_ when all he could think of was the third line of the riddle. They were so close to solving it, and though his mind was racing with possibilities, none of them fit. It had to be somewhere on grounds, somewhere within the castle…


	13. A Rainy Realization

**A Rainy Realization**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

On Friday, March fifth, Yukimura awoke to an empty room. He got out of bed, checked the bathroom only to find it was empty as well, and frowned deeply. They did not have class yet and he had not overslept; breakfast was still being served in the Great Hall. He had a feeling that he knew what was going on, but did not let his thoughts wander and develop in case he was wrong.

He quickly dressed and left the common room, ascending the stairs to the main floor of the castle. At the top of the stairs, there was a series of pops and shouts, and he was suddenly covered in colorful confetti. Yukimura shook the confetti out of his hair, thankful none had gotten into his eyes, and looked up.

"Happy birthday!" Marui and Jackal shouted.

"Yes, what they said," Yanagi said, smiling.

They three were holding empty plastic containers, some type of muggle toy, which Yukimura concluded were the source of the confetti.

Sanada stood behind next to them, frowning. "I told you not to pop them."

"You're no fun," Marui said. "And after Jackal went through all the trouble of getting them."

"I just asked my parents to mail them," Jackal said. He looked at Yukimura. "It really was no big deal."

Yagyuu and Niou were standing behind Marui and Jackal. Niou did not look particularly happy about being included, but he was there nonetheless.

"Was this your idea, Yanagi?" Yukimura asked.

"Sanada's, actually," Yanagi said, smiling at Sanada.

"Happy birthday, Seiichi," Sanada said.

"We were going to celebrate tomorrow, when we didn't have class," Marui said, "but we figured we'd do it today since the Quidditch match is tomorrow."

Yukimura nodded. What would probably be Slytherin's final match of the season, barring some miracle or magic, was being held tomorrow—Slytherin versus Gryffindor. If they won by over three hundred and ten points, they could play Ravenclaw for the Quidditch House Cup. It was unlikely, and for the first time in his life, Yukimura was not excited for a Quidditch match.

"And now we get to celebrate your birthday on your actual birthday," Jackal said.

"We planned the whole day," Yanagi said.

Marui nodded. "Breakfast together, and someone in each of your classes is taking notes for you today so you don't have to write"—that was quite nice, considering they had double Potions today—"and then we're having lunch in the room behind the tapestry."

"Sanada said you like fish and chips so we asked the house elves to make some," Jackal said.

"Sanada and Yanagi mentioned that you have Quidditch practice after class, but afterwards, Niou and I will help you get into the greenhouses," Yagyuu said. "I left a book in there one day and we figured out which unlocking charm works on the doors."

"Dinner in the Great Hall," Yanagi said, "then we have presents for you. Afterwards, we thought we could all roam the grounds in search of where the twins stand tall."

"They filled us in on the riddle," Marui said, giving Niou a sideways glance, like he couldn't believe Niou knew about the partial solution to second riddle before he did. "Jackal's totally going to find it for you as a birthday present."

Yukimura smiled. "Thank you all. It sounds like I'll be quite busy today. We should probably get started, then. You mentioned breakfast?"

They entered and crossed the Great Hall, sitting at the unoccupied end of the Slytherin table. There were a few nasty looks sent their way, but no one said anything. Ravenclaws, and even Hufflepuffs, sometimes sat at the Slytherin table with their friends, as rare that was, but Gryffindors were another matter altogether, especially with the Quidditch match tomorrow.

They filled their plates with French toast, eggs, potatoes, and cut fruit. Marui swore the Slytherin table had better biscuits than the Gryffindor table.

Halfway through their meal, the mail came. A school owl swooped down, dropping the _Daily Prophet_ in front of Yanagi, and Yukimura's family owl came shortly after, leaving a sizeable package in front of Yukimura.

"Your parents' gift?" Sanada asked.

Yukimura undid the strings tying the box, opening it up to find several more boxes inside. "And Emiko's and Pisky's, from the looks of it."

"Pisky?" Marui asked. "Your parents named a kid _Pisky_?"

"House elf, actually," Yukimura said as he pulled a tin of ginger cookies and a warm Slytherin-green sweater from Pisky from the box, "and we didn't name her."

His parents had sent him two books, one on Quidditch and another on aquatic plants. He passed around Emiko's cookies, which had the correct amounts of flour and sugar this time, and flipped through the herbology book with mild interest.

Akiteru came over, forcing himself between Yukimura and Sanada, and sat down. Marui and Jackal stared, clueless, while Niou hardly spared Akiteru a glance.

"Happy birthday, Seiichi!" Akiteru said. He placed a long poorly wrapped box next to Yukimura's plate. Yukimura ripped off the paper, which was the front of yesterday's _Daily Prophet_ , and opened the box. It contained beautiful white quill that shined like a rainbow under the light. "It's a Pegasus feather quill. They're super light and whenever you write with it, the ink will never smudge or fade, even if you drop the parchment in water."

"Thank you," Yukimura said, picking up the feather and turning it in his hand. "It's beautiful."

"Mom and Dad got you some rare muggle plant—your father is taking care of it until you get back. They sent me a letter with the name." Akiteru reached into his robes and procured an envelope, sealed with wax and the Sanada family crest, which he handed to Yukimura. "Here."

Yukimura opened the letter, written by Mr. Sanada, which explained his gift, a plant called the kadupul flower. Yukimura had read about the plant once, in a muggle book his father kept as light reading. It only grew in one place on earth and was considered priceless to many muggles for its rarity and beauty. Mr. Sanada explained that the plant was in excellent care and there was no need to worry.

"How did your parents get it?" Yukimura asked, flushed with excitement. "It's so rare. It's not even native to this continent."

"Mom pulled in a couple of favors with some of her contacts in the country where it grows," Akiteru said. "She said if she can't use her power and position to get a plant imported then she's a failure as an auror and a Sanada."

Yukimura smiled. "I don't think your mother could ever be considered a failure."

"Me neither," Akiteru said, grinning. "Now, I'd know you'd love to have me stick around since I'm always the life of the party, but I have a Defense Against the Dark Arts exam to study for."

Akiteru clapped Yukimura on the shoulder, wished him happy birthday again, and left.

Once the prefect was gone, Marui looked at Sanada. "Was that your brother?"

Sanada nodded.

"Your brother is a lot cooler than you. He actually smiles," Marui joked. Sanada frowned. "See what I mean?" Marui looked at Jackal, who rolled his eyes.

"I should take all of this back to the room then go to Potions," Yukimura said thoughtfully, drawing the attention away from Sanada. There was nothing Sanada hated more than people pointing out how different he was from his older brother. "I have a busy day of not taking notes to attend to."

Potions was far more enjoyable when he did not have to hurry to write down everything Professor Kurobe said while attempting to keep up with the fast paced lecture. He learned more about the twelve uses for dragon blood than he ever thought possible.

Each event that his friends had planned went perfectly and only lifted his mood higher.

By dinner, no one looked sideways at them as they sat together in the Great Hall. He received muggle devices called pencils from Yanagi, which could be erased and sharpened for reuse, and new Quidditch gloves from Sanada. The others had also given him gifts, to his surprise—sweets from Marui and Jackal, a book on Quidditch strategies from Yagyuu, and a spell from Niou that transfigured a ball of fabric into bees to help pollinate plants.

Yagyuu and Niou left after helping him into the greenhouses, choosing not to assist in their grounds-wide search for an answer to the riddle. But even with Marui and Jackal's help, the trio found nothing that resembled where the twins could stand tall.

Despite that, it was by far the best birthday Yukimura had ever had.

* * *

The following day, rain poured down from the gray sky in sheets, stinging like needles. Thunder cracked in the distance but no one had seen lightning so the Quidditch match was to be played as scheduled. Yanagi used a spell on their green Quidditch robes that made the water run straight off like water on wax paper.

Imayoshi gave them their usual pep-talk in the Slytherin locker room. "Those brainless lions are looking down on us. If we're clever, and aggressive, we can beat them. Beaters, make sure you hit hard…"

Yukimura drowned out his captain as usual.

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi followed their teammates out onto the Pitch. Yanagi lingered at the entrance where they were still blocked from the rain. He frowned as the rain came crashing down and the wind howled all around them.

Yukimura and Sanada did not advance onto the Pitch without him.

"I've never flown in a storm this bad before," Yanagi said. His voice was softer than usual, his hand looser around his broom.

"You'll be fine," Yukimura said easily, though he had never flown in a storm quite this strong either. He did not let his inexperience affect his confidence. "We taught you."

"Don't fight the wind," Sanada said, sounding unsure.

"It looks like we'll need to go directly against the wind to get to the goalposts," Yukimura said, noting the way his hair was pushed into his face. "Go to the side, then cut towards the goals. You'll have less resistance that way."

Yanagi nodded. "That sounds logical."

"HEY!" Imayoshi shouted over the wind, waving them over to where the teams were lining up.

The stands were packed with red and gold. Even without the rain, Yukimura doubted he could spot his friends' faces in the crowd. He focused on the Gryffindor Chasers and the Quaffle, rising into the air, swaying in the wind but remaining in place.

"And the Quaffle is up!" Professor Watanabe said. "Gryffindor takes possession—passing is going to be hard in this weather—never mind, Gryffindor is passing! Way to make your professor look like an idiot. Slytherin in pursuit, but the Chaser in possession is at the goalposts—can't exactly see who with the rain—and they score, right past Slytherin Captain and Keeper Imayoshi! Ten points to Gryffindor."

Imayoshi tossed the Quaffle back out. A Gryffindor tried to intercept, but Sanada didn't allow it, catching the ball despite the leather being slick with rain. He headed down the Pitch.

Yukimura flew alongside Sanada, keeping an eye out for rogue Bludgers and their opposing Chasers.

A flash of gold caught Yukimura's attention, and it wasn't lightning. The Snitch was right in front of him. He nearly laughed. Only the Seeker could catch the Snitch, yet it was right there, an arm's length away.

He wanted to scream to his teammate, but that would only alert Gryffindor, and who knew if his Seeker would hear him over the storm.

From where he was in the sky, the Snitch was in line with the Astronomy Tower, the tallest of all the school's towers. It hit him like a Bludger. Yukimura slowed and stared, wondering how he could have been so blind. It was right there alone along. He had seen the answer months ago!

"Seiichi!" Sanada shouted.

Yukimura turned, catching the Quaffle without thinking, and took off towards the goalposts. The Snitch disappeared.

"There goes Yukimura, cutting across the Pitch to the avoid the wind—no quick passes from those first years today in this weather—"

Yukimura shut out everything around him. He scored once, but Gryffindor took it right back and then other. Gryffindor was up by forty before Yukimura even touched the Quaffle again, dodging Bludgers and pressing against the wind towards the goalposts. Sanada scored right after him, but when Yanagi aimed his shot, the Keeper blocked it.

Yukimura intercepted a hastily made pass, tucking the Quaffle to his side and flying down the Pitch. But out of nowhere, a Bludger appeared in his blind spot, it's approached silenced by the rain.

The ball rammed into his arm, pain blossoming but not lasting. He dropped the Quaffle, nearly cursing at himself. He should know better than to release the Quaffle for a mere hit from a Bludger.

To his relief, Yanagi flew in underneath him, caught the Quaffle, and flew towards the goalposts without looking back.

Sanada flew up besides him. "Are you okay?"

Yukimura nodded. "Focus on the match."

"Yanagi scores another ten points for Slytherin! The snakes are hanging on by their fangs."

Unfortunately, the Snitch did not stay hidden from the Seekers for long, and soon the Gryffindor Seeker was diving, and then—

"Gryffindor has caught the snitch for one hundred and fifty points, ending the match. Gryffindor wins two hundred and ten to thirty!"

If Professor Watanabe kept talking, Yukimura couldn't hear him. The sound from the crowd was deafening. Yukimura couldn't even hear his own team groaning in defeat, though he had no doubt it was occurring. It would have been nearly impossible to win, but they had held on to a shred of illogical hope that they would. Gryffindor would play Ravenclaw for the Quidditch House Cup in a few weeks. Their season was over.

The teams landed on the muddy ground. The captains were forced to shake hands by Professor Ryuzaki, who was brimming with pride at her house's victory. She hadn't been unfair in her calls, despite her house's rivalry with Slytherin, and Yukimura held a great deal of respect for her for her impartialness.

Instead of returning to the locker room with the rest of his team, Yukimura mounted his broom again.

"Follow me," he said.

Sanada and Yanagi looked at each other, appearing equally confused, but they mounted their brooms anyways. Yukimura was just about to push off the muddy ground when Professor Ryuzaki came over.

"No flying outside of the match, not in this weather," she said sharply.

"I'm going to the Hospital Wing to have my arm looked at," Yukimura lied flawlessly. "It's still sore and I want to have it checked as soon as possible."

"And we're going with him," Sanada said.

Professor Ryuzaki sighed. "You boys, I _swear_ …" She looked at Yukimura critically, trying to decide if he was lying. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "GO! Before I change my mind."

They pushed off, taking to the stormy sky, and flew towards the castle. Yukimura's arm did not hurt in the slightest. He flew as fast as he could, as though his revelation may leave his mind at any second.

They landed in the main courtyard and hurried inside, but instead of veering down the right corridor to the Hospital Wing, Yukimura went up the stairs. Sanada and Yanagi followed him.

"The Hospital Wing is the other direction," Yanagi said.

"We're not going to the Hospital Wing, are we?" Sanada asked.

"I figured it out," Yukimura said excitedly, practically running. "On Christmas, the Grey Lady told me to stop lurking. Of course she would know where Ravenclaw's library is—she's the house ghost! She may even have been alive when Ravenclaw was."

"Seiichi, you're not explaining anything," Sanada said.

"I was in the Astronomy Tower when she talked to me. I saw it—I just didn't realize it!"

Yukimura sprinted down the corridor to the Astronomy Tower, tossing open the door that lead to the circular room with the spiral staircase to the top of the tower. He walked along the right wall until he found it, a tiny white gemstone in the shape of a crescent moon embedded into the wall.

"A moon," Sanada said slowly, out of breath from running. He pinched his eyebrows together in confusion.

"Is there a sun?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura nodded, pointing to the other side of the room. Yanagi crossed the room, quickly finding the small yellow gemstone carved into the shape of the sun.

"The riddle talked about the sun and moon," Yukimura said. "Yagyuu said they have been written as twins. We use the spells here, in this tower on the stones, where the twins stand tall. This is the path to knowledge of all. _This_ is where Ravenclaw's library is hidden."


	14. Into the Tower

**Into the Tower**

 _Sanada Genichirou_

They unanimously decided on the date that they would attempt to solve the riddle: the Friday two weeks before their final exams. They practiced the spells for moonlight and sunlight in the hidden rooms in the common room until they could do it in their sleep, even Yukimura, though Sanada and Yanagi were the ones charged with casting the spells.

They did not tell anyone, not even Marui and Jackal, of their expedition. The less people involved, the less likely they were to be caught, or that's what Yukimura kept saying.

A week before the set date, they mapped out the route they would take from the Slytherin dungeon to the Astronomy Tower on Akiteru's maps.

"I've been meaning to ask since you explained how you found the Room of Requirement," Yanagi said. "How did you get these? I thought all maps of the school were destroyed."

"I have my ways," Yukimura said, though both Yukimura and Sanada knew it was Akiteru who had made the maps. Still, Yanagi did not know that and was in complete awe; Sanada didn't want to ruin his fun by pointing out how horribly drawn the maps were.

There were several tricky spots since their path overlapped with the prefects routes, but they learned from Akiteru that prefects switched duties at ten, giving them a few minutes where there would be no prefects on patrol to bother them—Yukimura stressed that this was the ideal case and they should be prepared for the worst.

"We could lose our house a lot of points for being caught out of bed," Yukimura said. "But I figure between the three of us, we've earned over one hundred points this year, so no one can complain if we lose that much."

"I still think people will complain if we lose one hundred points this close to the House Cup," Sanada said. "We're already behind Ravenclaw and Gryffindor."

"If anyone complains, then I'll convince them to stop," Yukimura said simply.

Sanada's anxiety became worse and worse as the set date approached, until every day was dreadful and he was constantly worrying about what could go wrong, or what could happen if they were wrong and the Astronomy Tower was a bust. Sanada mentioned his fear to Yukimura while Yanagi bathed in the bathroom, and Yukimura said, "I'm sure we're right," and that was the end of their discussion.

The day of, Sanada forced down toast and eggs at breakfast, and dragged himself to Potions, where he forgot to add the Flobberworm mucus to their Herbicide Potion. At least they were not the only ones whose potion did not kill the small potted plants Professor Kurobe had at the front of the room. Sanada was not surprised when he saw that Yanagi and Inui were some of the few who had brewed the potion perfectly, their plant shriveling down to the size of a twig.

That night, they packed their wands, the scroll, and the maps, and left the common room at nine thirty. They made a dash through the dungeons, hoping they would not see the Bloody Baron, or worse, Peeves.

Luck was on their side. They made it to the main hall without running into anyone.

Panting, and knowing they didn't have much time, they approached a window with the curtains drawn shut. They parted the heavy fabric and climbed into the small window alcove, Sanada pressed between them. Yanagi's knobbly knee was pressing uncomfortably into Sanada's thighs, and Yukimura's elbow was in his stomach, but they were concealed as long as no one opened the curtains.

They didn't have to wait long for the prefects on duty to meet and exchange reports—Moaning Myrtle flooded the bathroom, someone caught two seventh years snogging in the Charms Corridor, another took ten points from Ravenclaw for two sixth years sneaking books out of the library without checking them out, and several other things.

Once the prefects were finished, an older student dismissed them. The prefects diverged, disappearing down different paths to their common rooms.

Yanagi looked at his wrist, where he had a tiny clock, and said, "It's nine fifty. Ten minutes until the next prefects start their shift."

They practically fell out of the window alcove onto the floor. Sanada didn't have time to worry about his sore knee and painful ribcage. They took off, running as fast as they could up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower before the next set of prefects began patrol.

They saw no ghost, or prefect, or anyone else who could catch them and ruin their weeks worth of planning. They finally reached the lower level of the Astronomy Tower where the sun and moon gemstones were embedded into the wall.

This was it, Sanada thought. They were about to solve the riddle. His heart wouldn't calm down. He couldn't help but smile, and saw that Yukimura and Yanagi were doing the same.

"Let's get started then, shall we?" Yukimura said. Sanada moved towards his assigned gemstone, the moon, and Yanagi moved towards the sun. Yukimura stood in the middle of the room. When both Sanada and Yanagi were in position, Yukimura counted them down. "On three. One, two, three—"

" _Lumos Lunae_."

" _Lumos Solem_."

Nothing happened.

Sanada frowned and lowered his wand. He was sure that he had said it right, and he was positive that Yanagi, who was a stickler for pronunciation in Charms, had as well.

Had they been wrong after all? Had they misinterpreted the second riddle?

Yukimura seemed to have thought the same. He hummed and frowned, saying, "That's odd. I was expecting something to happen…"

Yukimura took a single step and the stone under his foot was pushed out of his place, falling down into an unforeseen cavern. Yukimura stumbled back, each stone he touched disappearing. Sanada moved to run over, but his leg fell into a larger hole, and he tripped and fell, catching himself with his hands.

"Genichirou!" Yukimura said. "Stay still."

Sanada obeyed. He became as still as a mountain.

There was nothing beneath Sanada's foot, only a pit. Sanada tried to pull himself up, but the stones shifted beneath his hands. His heart rate increased as he realized that he was going to fall, and a panicked thought in the back of his mind told him he may never have the chance to stand up again.

Across the room, Yanagi shouted. Yukimura and Sanada whirled their heads around and saw their friend disappear before their eyes.

"YANAGI!" Sanada shouted.

The stones they had not touched were beginning to fall, shifting and grinding. Soon every stone from the floor of the Astronomy Tower fell into the dark abyss, and so did they.

They screamed as the ground around them crumbled and disappeared, and they plummeted into the darkness. The air rushed around them, whistling in their ears. The stones fell alongside them, dangerously close. Sanada did not know which way was up and which way was down. He could not see the bottom, or his friends.

"Yanagi!" Yukimura called out.

From below, they heard, "Be careful, the stones are still falling!"

"What are we going to do?" Sanada asked. If only they had their brooms, they could fly, but that wasn't an option.

Yukimura had an answer. "Levitation Charm!"

Sanada did not know if Yanagi cast his charm, or if he had even heard Yukimura. The world was closing in around him. He tightened his grip on his wand, thankful he had not released it in his panic, and waved it. But before he could say the spell, Yukimura said, "Wait, Genichirou, don't cast yours! Remember what happened in Charms?"

Sanada paled and his stomach flipped.

When they had learned the Levitation Charm, Sanada's feather had shot straight to the ceiling. His Elemental Affinity made it impossible for him to control the spell. If he used the spell on himself, he would shoot back the way they came and fall again. Or worse, he could collide with the falling rocks. He did not think he would be as unharmed as his feather had been when he fell back down.

"I'm going to die if I don't do something!"

"Do you trust me?" Yukimura asked.

"This is not the time for that!"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes!"

They were swallowed in darkness, and now, in silence. Sanada squeezed his eyes shut, sure he was going to die, then Yukimura grabbed onto his arm and tugged him close. Sanada clutched onto Yukimura's arm, knowing his life depended on it.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_."

The air seemed to stall around them. Rather, they stalled in the air. Yukimura was levitating them both.

Slowly, they descended as Yukimura carefully released the spell so they were lowered down instead of plummeting to their deaths. Only a wizard of Yukimura's caliber could completely control a spell they had only performed a handful of times. Though even for a wizard like Yukimura, holding up two people must have been beyond difficult.

"Can you see how close we are to the ground?" Yukimura asked, voice tense. "This is a bit—harder—than I thought."

"Don't say it like you're about to drop us." Yukimura did not respond. Sanada quickly waved his wand. " _Lumos_!"

His wand lit. They were only several feet from the ground.

"What now?" Sanada asked.

"This may hurt," Yukimura said and the spell gave out.

Sanada collided with the ground face first, holding out his arms just in time to lesson the force of impact, but the shock was still strong enough to dispel his lighting charm. It was dark again. Pain blossomed from his face. His skull felt like it was vibrating and his nose stung with discomfort.

"Are you hurt?" Yukimura asked. Sanada heard him sit up. He could not see him in the darkness. "Genichirou, are you alright?"

Sanada groaned in discomfort as he sat up. He rubbed his face. He felt something wet and sticky running down to his lips and chin. "My nose is bleeding."

"That's all?" Yukimura sighed in relief. "Thank Merlin."

"You?"

"I don't think I've broken anything."

Good. Yukimura was safe.

Sanada shoved his robes against his nose to stop the flow of blood, but it didn't do much besides soak his sleeve.

"Yanagi!" Yukimura called out.

There was a soft thump as Yanagi moved, somewhere close to them, and he said, "Either I've died, or I've reached the ground. My heart is beating too fast for me to make a logical decision."

"You've reached the ground," Yukimura said. "We need to get to our feet. We don't know where we are. Light your wands."

They carefully stood up, each of them casting a Wand-Lighting Charm. They found themselves standing in the center of a large, circular room with a ceiling too high to see. Four towering stone statues of eagles flanked the sides of the room and rose high above their heads, their stone wings stretching out into the darkness above; between each of the statue's talons was a dark pathway.

"The stone from the floor of the Astronomy Tower," Yanagi said, "they're gone."

He was right. The stones that had once been the floor of the Astronomy Tower and fallen alongside them had magically disappeared.

"The stones must be enchanted," Yukimura said. "Maybe they went up and reformed the floor of the Astronomy Tower."

That meant no one would know they were down here.

"Where are we?" Yukimura asked.

"Somewhere deep beneath the school," Yanagi said. "It was a straight fall, but if this room is enchanted, who knows where we are in relation to the tower."

Yukimura looked around the room. "Yanagi, did you ever read about a room like this existing in the castle?"

Yanagi frowned. The light from their wands cast an eerie, bluish glow on their faces and the walls around them. He said, "I'd read that each of the four founders were rumored to have hidden chambers within the castle. Eagles are Ravenclaw's symbol—this may be her room."

Sanada did not care where they were. He cared where they were going. They could not leave the way they came, and the only visible paths were the archways beneath each of the four statues.

"But which way do we go?" Sanada asked.

Yukimura looked at Yanagi. "Does the scroll say anything?"

Yanagi pulled the scroll from his robes, holding his wand several inches above the parchment. He shook his head. No new lines had appeared.

Sanada wiped blood and sweat off his chin. He didn't like this. Which way were they supposed to go? There were four different paths. As far as he could tell, they were all the same.

"Let's start with that one"—Yukimura pointed his wand to the eagle statue in front of them—"and work our way around clockwise. We may get lucky and find it on our first try."

"There's only one library," Sanada said, anxious and confused. "So why are there four tunnels? What else is down here?"

They stood silently for several moments, no one moving.

Hadn't the Grey Lady warned Yukimura to stop lurking, that he wouldn't like what he found? What if only one of them led to the library and the other three led to their deaths?

Yukimura took the first step towards the archway and the others followed. It was too late to turn back now. There was no visible exit and only four paths in front of them. They didn't have any other choice but to press forward, and Sanada would follow Yukimura anywhere, and he was sure that Yanagi was beginning to feel the same way.

The tunnel was dark and long, their footsteps echoing as they advanced. Sanada had broken into a cold, clammy sweat that hung heavily on his skin like the damp air around them. Cobwebs blocked their path, but there was not a single living creature scurrying along the arched stone walls. Everything down here had died centuries ago.

The path was barely wide enough for them to walk side by so they chose to walk in a triangle, with Yukimura in the front and Sanada and Yanagi behind him.

Abruptly, after only one hundred feet, the tunnel came to a stop. Thick slabs of gray stone and significant amounts of dirt blocked their path.

"The tunnel must have collapsed," Yanagi said. "We could try moving it, but that may cause the rest of the ceiling to fall…"

"Let's try the next path," Yukimura said.

Sanada's nose had stopped bleeding. He wiped the dry blood off his upper lip and followed Yukimura back into the center chamber where he felt like he was being watched. He turned and saw nothing behind him, only the giant eagle statues standing overhead, which were of no comfort.

The next corridor reminded Sanada of the Slytherin dormitory. Door after door stretched down the long hallway for as far as the eye could see. Only instead of silver plaques with the names of residents, the doors were blank, identical down to the last splinter and cobweb on the doorknobs.

"The doors may be traps," Yukimura said. "Let's walk for awhile and see if this hallway ends before opening them. Look for any doors that are different from the rest."

"I agree," Yanagi said.

They began walking, looking for any indication of which door they were supposed to open. The hallway seemed never ending, and each door remained identical to the last.

Sanada lost count of how many doors they passed. His feet ached, his wrists were beginning to feel the pain of their early impact, and his nose was too clogged with dried blood to breathe through.

He looked over his shoulder to see how far they had come and stopped dead in his tracks. He blanched at what he saw.

"How long have we been walking?" Sanada asked, voice quiet.

"About fifteen minutes," Yanagi said.

Yukimura kept walking, unaware that Sanada had stopped, unaware of what was happening. "What is it, Genichirou?"

"We haven't moved at all," Sanada said.

Yukimura and Yanagi stopped and turned.

Behind them, they could still see the center chamber with the four eagle statues. There were two doors behind them, but no more, when Sanada was sure they had passed _hundreds_.

"The hallway is charmed," Yukimura said, surprisingly calm. "No matter how much we walk, we're not going to advance. I think this is some type of spatial magic. It makes sense, though. Ravenclaw did build the castle, after all; spatial magic must have been her specialty."

"But there has to be a way to continue forward," Sanada said, looking at his friends. "Right?"

"One of the doors, most likely," Yanagi said.

" _Lumos_ has the ability to unveil unseen entrances, doesn't it?" Yukimura asked.

Yanagi nodded slowly, seeming unsure. "I've only read the theory behind it."

"That's more than Seiichi and I know about it," Sanada said. "You should try it."

"I'm sure you can do it," Yukimura said.

Yanagi nodded again, more surely this time. He raised his lit wand and, without saying anything, waved it through the air in an intricate pattern. With a final flick, a tiny orb of warm, white light appeared several inches from the tip of his wand. It was barely larger than a Snitch.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Sanada asked hesitantly. The last thing he needed was for that little ball of light to explode.

"Yes," Yanagi said, smiling at his accomplishment. "Any second now, it should—"

The orb of light moved forward then turned to the right, disappearing through a door. Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi followed it, opening the door and stepping into another room, the door locking shut behind them.

They were now in a circular room lit by a heavy iron chandelier that hung precariously in the middle of the room. There were three suits of medieval armor with heavy iron lances—one to their left, another to their right, and the third straight in front of them—but nothing else inside the room, not even a door or visible path.

"What do we do now?" Sanada asked.

"There may be something on the stones, like there was in the Astronomy Tower," Yukimura said.

They walked forward together. When they reached the center of the round room, the armor began to move, their lances lifted and pointed at the trio. The metal armor clanked heavily as the previously inanimate objects approached.

Without hesitating, Yukimura pointed his wand at the suit of armor directly in front of them and said, " _Flipendo_!" The suit of armor flipped backwards onto its back with a hollow clang.

" _Aranea Theca_!" Yanagi shouted. A large white spider web shot from the tip of Yanagi's wand, wrapping around the suit of armor, trapping its arms to its side and making it drop its lance.

" _Diffindo_!" Sanada aimed at the remaining suit of armor. There was a sharp slash as the armor's left arm cut off at the forearm and dropped to the floor along with the lance.

For a brief moment, Sanada thought they were victorious, but they were not so lucky, and Rowena Ravenclaw not so stupid.

The suit of armor Yukimura had knocked back rose to its feet, and Yanagi's broke free from the spider web with impressive strength for a hollow object, and Sanada's picked up the lance with its other hand.

They were approaching again with more bloodlust than before, quickly jabbing at them with the intent to kill. The suits of armor moved faster than Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi, who spent more time backing away than returning blows.

A voice that sounded an awful lot like Professor Reyna shouted in Sanada's mind, "Survive no matter! Use your surroundings and your enemy's force against them!" But nothing came to mind—the room was empty except for their enemy, who were attacking them with spears, not spells. Professor Reyna never prepared them for _this_.

Yukimura pointed his wand at the iron chandelier, aiming for the chain. " _Diffindo_!" The chain blasted into pieces, and the iron chandelier fell, but the suits of armor jumped out of the way, quickly reforming their ranks to continue their approach.

"Aim for the joints of the armor," Yanagi said. "The metal there is thinner with more gaps to allow movement."

They were being backed against the wall, taking two steps back for every step the suits of armor took towards them, and it was harder to aim spells while backpedaling than it was stationary. None of them hit the joints.

"We need to destroy them _now_ ," Yukimura said.

One of the suits stabbed their lance to Yanagi, who gasped and stumbled back to avoid it, his back pressing against the wall. There was nowhere else to run. A few more steps and one thrust each, and they would be dead.

If they needed destruction, Sanada had the perfect spell.

"Get behind me," Sanada said, stepping forward. His voice left no room for argument, and his friends obeyed. Sanada planted his feet firmly on the ground, pointed his wand at the suits of armor, hoped this worked, and said, " _Incendio_!"

Burning bright blue flames shot from the tip of Sanada's wand, forming a wall from floor to ceiling that spanned the length of the room and separated them from the enchanted armor. The flame wall flickered as though it was alive. The force of the spell made Sanada's wand shake, forcing him to grip his wand with both hands.

One mistake and he could burn them all alive.

He could not see the suits of armor approaching the wall of fire, but he heard them. Their armor clanked and rattled as they walked towards them. Their lances pierced the flames, drooping from the heat, melting with bursts of red and orange flames and thick black smoke that burned Sanada's lungs.

The suits appeared next, stepping into the flames and quickly falling to their knees, the thin joints melting. One suit of armor jabbed his lance at Sanada, and if the lance had not dropped to the floor, Sanada would have had a flaming hole through his abdomen—he tried to focus on the spell and not think about it.

Piece by piece, the three suits of armor melted.

He held onto the spell for several more moments, unsure of how to stop it. The last time he cast the spell, Professor Vega had snuffed it out for him.

Sanada closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. When he looked, the flames were dissipating into curling wisps of smoke. His wand stopped shaking and soon, it stopped spitting flames. The suits of armor lay in puddles in the middle of the room.

Yukimura and Yanagi approached him.

"Genichirou," Yukimura said, looking at Sanada with respect. He did not say anything else.

"That was brilliant," Yanagi said. "You were able to control the spell!"

"I don't know if I could do it again," Sanada said.

"You could," Yukimura said with great confidence. "I know you could."

Yukimura smiled with ease, so sure in Sanada's abilities, and Sanada thought he meant it. When Yukimura believed in him, Sanada felt as though he could do anything.

"I never thought Ravenclaw would protect her library like this," Sanada said, wiping the sweat from his face. "She must have been mad."

"She most likely did not want her greatest treasure to fall into the wrong hands," Yanagi said. "I doubt that she expected three first years to attempt her to find her library."

"Even the smartest witches and wizards would fail if they weren't strong," Yukimura said. "It's a good way to ensure her library's safety."

Behind them, the stones on the wall began to shift, revealing a short pathway to another wooden door. Destroying the suits of armor must have unlocked the way.

"Let's go," Yukimura ordered. "Who knows how many more puzzles there are?"

"As long as more inanimate objects don't attack us," Sanada said.

Surprisingly, the path to the new door was not trapped or enchanted. Sanada wondered when he would stop second-guessing his every step if they ever got out of here.

A bit of parchment with bronze ink and Rowena Ravenclaw's handwriting was pinned to the wooden door. To the right of the door there was a metal ring with three keys—one gold, one silver, and one bronze—hanging on a dull lead pin that had been shoved into the stone wall.

Yanagi tried the knob. "Locked," he said, though Sanada was expecting that. Yanagi pointed his wand. " _Alohomora_." The door remained locked.

"It looks like another riddle," Yukimura said, looking at the parchment.

"What if we destroy the door?" Sanada asked. "That's easier than figuring out another one of her riddles."

"Destroying the door may destroy the path on the other side," Yanagi said. "We could destroy the path to Ravenclaw's library forever."

Sanada was beginning to not care about the library at all. He just wanted a way out of this place and to get as far away from Ravenclaw's crazy puzzles and traps as physically possible.

He knew Yukimura and Yanagi did not share the same sentiment.

"Then we need to choose the right key," Yukimura said. "The riddle may have clues."

Sanada looked over Yukimura's shoulder to read the riddle.

 _Let your eyes choose and you shall be deceived,  
For wit and cunning are all that you need.  
The first and third are wrong indeed,  
But best not choose the second key.  
One is a fool, but it is not made of gold;  
Choose this path, and you will have time to grow old.  
Danger lies behind, while safety lies ahead,  
Yet if you pick gold, you'll find nothing but dread._

"This doesn't make any sense," Yanagi said. "There is no answer. All of the keys are wrong; 'the first and third are wrong indeed, but best not choose the second key.'"

"'One is a fool, but it is not made of gold; choose this path, and you will have time to grow old,'" Yukimura read. "So either silver or bronze are fake keys, and it won't harm us if we use it. We're not supposed to use the second key, which is silver, so that means the bronze key is a fake. Since gold leads to dread, that leaves the silver key."

"But we're not supposed to pick the second key," Yanagi said. " _There is no answer_."

"Maybe one of the clues is wrong," Sanada suggested. "That's what the first two lines about being deceived could mean. Maybe we have to figure out which clues are real."

"Perhaps… But how would we know which lines are fake and which are real?"

No one said anything while they thought.

"But what if we just can't see it?" Yukimura mumbled as he stepped forward. He took the ring of keys off the pin, handed them to Sanada, and then began to pull at the pin wedged into the stone wall.

"Seiichi?" Sanada asked.

"I have an idea," Yukimura said simply. He planted his feet on the ground, using his entire weight as leverage, and pulled as hard as he could. He grunted with the force it took, but slowly, the pin began to slide free from the stones.

With great difficulty and some wiggling, Yukimura yanked the lead pin out of the wall and held it up for them to see. At the end of the pin was a key ward with bumps and divots. The lead pin was a key.

"'Let your eyes choose and you shall be deceived,'" Yukimura said, breathing heavily but smiling, "'for wit and cunning are all that you need.'"

"The real key was hidden." Yanagi said in awe. "How did you know?"

"Well, if none of the visible keys were right, then there had to be a fourth option," Yukimura said. "It reminded me about the invisible ink on the scroll and the hidden path to the door. Ravenclaw does enjoy hiding things."

"Like libraries," Sanada grumbled.

Yukimura laughed softly, said, "I think this key is safe to use."

When Sanada and Yanagi nodded in agreement, Yukimura put the key into the door, turning it with a _click_. He tried the knob and it turned, the door opening inward.

They stepped inside, their wands lit.

"Is this…?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura ran forward, smiling brightly. "It is!"

They had found it, Sanada thought as he followed Yukimura.

They had finally found Rowena Ravenclaw's lost library.

Intricate columns sprouted out from the stone flooring like trees alongside the tall, dark wood, floor to ceiling bookcases. They walked onto a hovering crossroad, each path leading to another section of books. In the hollows of the crossword, they can see more floors above and below them, stretching out further than their eyes could see.

The magnitude of the library left Sanada breathless. There were hundreds, maybe even _thousands_ of bookcases, and perhaps more that they could not see. They could spend forever in this place and never read every book it held.

"Miss Hanamura would faint if she saw this," Yukimura said.

"I think _I_ may faint," Yanagi said.

"Please don't," Sanada said.

Yukimura laughed, and so did Yanagi, ecstatic in their victory while Sanada looked for anything that looked like a trap, or could come alive and attack them. He saw nothing. Unless the books flew off the shelves and hurdled towards them, they were safe.

Yukimura spun around in the center of the crossroads, looking at the four paths. He stopped and, looking dazed, asked, "Which way should we go first? Straight, left, right?"

Sanada looked off to the left. Yukimura followed his gaze.

"Left it is!" Yukimura said with a large smile.

"I didn't mean—"

"Of course you did!"

"But I didn't say—"

"Do you hear that?" Yukimura asked, his smile disappearing.

"What are you talking about?"

"Genichirou, be quiet, I really think I heard—"

"I heard it too," Yanagi said, suddenly serious as well.

"Heard _what_?" Sanada asked.

The screech of metal on metal; the sound of flapping wings; the sharp predatory cries of an approaching creature; Yukimura drew his wand, Sanada and Yanagi quickly mimicking him.

They were not alone.


	15. The Guardians

**The Guardians**

 _Sanada Genichirou_

Two enormous bronze eagles as large as hippogriffs swooped in from the towering raptures with surprising grace and landed nearly ten feet away. They did not attack, but they did not approach either. Their metal heads twitched with mechanical sounds like gears, and their detailed bronze wings glimmered with the light from their wands.

Sanada had never seen a living creature like it. He wasn't sure they were entirely alive at all.

"Humans?" one eagle said.

"Live humans?" the other said.

"Humans cannot talk if they are dead."

"Statues cannot talk."

"Then how are we talking?"

The bronze eagles looked at one another. They spoke with great emotion, sounding nearly human.

"This is quite the conundrum."

"I feel as though I should know the answer to this conundrum."

"Or should I know?"

"I do not know."

"You do not know the answer, or you do not know that I should know that which I do not?"

"I do not know that which I do not know."

"You do not know that which you do not know?"

"We do not know that which we do not know."

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi shared a long look. They did not lower their wands and quickly looked back at the strange creatures. They were bronze statues, animated by some type of complex magic.

Sanada still wasn't sure if he would call them alive. He would call any other object that had been enchanted to move inanimate, but he had never seen enchanted objects with such a high level of intelligence (if you could call their ramblings intelligent).

The eagles turned their heads towards them, stretched out their necks, and said together, "Who are you?"

"My name is Yukimura."

"What are you?" the eagles asked.

Yukimura frowned and took a moment to think before answering, "A wizard."

"A student, a student!" one bird cried. "Mistress Rowena's students!"

"We are students at Hogwarts, but we are not your mistress' students," Yukimura said slowly with great caution. They did not know if the animated statues would attack them. "Rowena Ravenclaw died hundreds of years ago."

"Died?" the first eagle said.

"Are we dead?" the second eagle asked, looking at the first.

"If we are dead then how are we talking?"

"This is quite the conundrum."

"I feel as though I should know the answer to this conundrum."

"Not again," Sanada muttered. It was the same nonsensical argument they just had!

The eagles looked at them again. They asked, "Why are you here?"

With his free hand, Yanagi reached into his robes. "We found a scroll and followed it here—"

The second eagle jumped towards Yanagi, clearing the space between them with a single movement. The three flinched away, taking several steps back. The eagle followed them, its neck stretched out, head cocked curiously as it approached.

Alive or not, if they were threatening to attack, Sanada would defend himself and his friends—not that he could imagine Yukimura or Yanagi ever needing his help in a duel.

"Stay back!" Sanada shouted.

The eagle paused. "You are rude."

"Rude, rude, rude!" the other eagle shouted.

Was he really being insulted by statues? Sanada saw that Yukimura was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing.

The three came to a halt. The eagle stood mere feet away. Yanagi nodded at Yukimura and Sanada, resolved, and pulled the scroll from his robes.

The eagle quickly snatched the scroll right from Yanagi's hand with its beak, making Yanagi gasp sharply in shock though he seemed unharmed, and leapt back to its duplicate. The eagle dropped the scroll onto the ground, gently unrolling it one of its wings.

"The scroll to Mistress Rowena's library."

"We are there."

"We are here?"

"We are here, and we are there."

"There is here, and here is there."

The eagles bowed their heads and spread their wings like a woman in curtsy. Their metal joints rang like a song. They said, "Welcome to Mistress Rowena's library, students of Hogwarts."

"I am Muninn, and I remember all that has happened."

"I am Huginn, and I conceive all that can happen.

Yukimura lowered his wand. Sanada and Yanagi quickly followed him, though Sanada did not drop his guard, and he was sure that Yukimura and Yanagi did not either.

"What are you?" Yanagi asked. "And what do you know about this place?"

Sanada didn't know why Yanagi was asking. He doubted they would ever get a straight answer from the neurotic statues.

Muninn answered, "Mistress Rowena was fading away. Her daughter was gone and she worried about those who sought to destroy her precious collection of knowledge or to misuse it for impure reasons. So she left a trail—"

Huginn cut in, "A scroll—"

"Her scroll—"

"The Eagle's Scroll—"

"To lead the brightest of students to this place." Muninn stretched out its wings as though it was gesturing to the entire library. The statue said, "Only those who pursue and value knowledge should have found this place."

"The place we guard."

Muninn nodded sagely. "We were conjured and enchanted by the mistress herself to guard her most sacred treasure. We have waited for students to find the scroll and seek out this place. We know every word on every page of every book. What do you wish to know?"

Huginn flapped its wings, the metal ringing. If statues could glare, Sanada imagined Huginn would be glaring at Muninn. Huginn said, "They can only ask about things that already know of. You cannot learn what you already know."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Let us show them something."

Muninn nodded in agreement.

The eagles approached and, to Sanada's surprise, bowed their heads. The eagles wanted them to ride on their backs.

The creatures were certainly large enough and no doubt capable of it if Ravenclaw herself enchanted them, but Sanada still felt uneasy. He was used to a broomstick, and he didn't think an enchanted bronze eagle would be quite the same.

Yukimura, however, had no issues and climbed on top of the statue—Huginn, Sanada thought—stepping on its metal wing to hoist him up. He smiled and held out a hand for Sanada, who trusted Yukimura more than his own anxieties that told him flying on the back of a giant enchanted eagle was the dumbest thing he could do.

He took Yukimura's hand and climbed up onto the eagle, using its metal wing as a foothold as Yukimura had. The bronze metal of the creature was cold but dull and did not hurt to sit on, though it was far from the comfortable handle of his broomstick. He grasped the statue tightly with his legs.

Huginn raised its head and Yukimura wrapped his arms around its neck. Sanada looked to the side and saw that Yanagi had climbed onto Muninn's back and was holding on tightly, looking rather nervous.

Twelve-foot wings flapped on either side of Sanada, who had just enough time to grab onto Yukimura before they were soaring upwards. Yukimura laughed while Sanada fought the urge to scream. The statue's wings beat uncomfortably as they rose higher into the air, making Yukimura and Sanada bump into one another as the statue gained altitude.

Suddenly, they plummeted down, diving across and between the intersecting pathways; they leaned into the statue's back and descended into the depths of the library; the air blasted at their faces; the library seemed endless; Sanada thought for sure he would slip right off the statue's back.

They flew parallel to a crossroad, entering a floor, and Sanada knew the part he was dreading most was about to happen: landing. Yukimura and Sanada leaned back as the statue came to a sudden halt, its talons scratching against the stone floor but leaving no marks.

Huginn lowered its head and Yukimura dismounted, followed by Sanada, whose legs did not want to hold his weight. He somehow managed to stand.

Yukimura's hair had been blasted out of his face. He smiled widely, his eyes brimming with awe. "That was absolutely brilliant."

Sanada did not feel the same. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"You think or you are?" Huginn asked. "If you think, do not think. If you are, do not do it on the books!"

Moments later, Muninn landed next to them, and Yukimura and Sanada helped Yanagi to dismount. He stumbled on his feet for a moment then regained his balance. He was a mixture of Yukimura's excitement and Sanada's nausea.

"Where are we?" Yukimura asked.

"This level houses books on magic from the druids," Muninn said, walking between a long line of bookcases. "The books on this side of the floor have been translated from ancient runes by Mistress Rowena—the originals are elsewhere. Plenty on wandlore, seers, and nature magic here."

"Nature magic," Yukimura repeated, looking briefly at Sanada then again at the eagles. "Is there anything on Elemental Affinity?"

Sanada's heart skipped a beat. Could he learn about his skill here, when the Hogwarts Library had nothing?

"I will return," Muninn said before bounding off out of sight.

Yanagi pulled an arbitrary book off the shelf and sat on the ground, opening the old book with eager curiosity. Yukimura walked along the aisle, examining the books on the shelves. Sanada followed closely behind.

Sanada could hear Huginn talking to Yanagi from further away.

"Are you also a wizard named Yukimura?"

"I'm Yanagi."

"A Yanagi named Yukimura, or a wizard named Yanagi?"

"A wizard named Yanagi."

Yukimura stopped at the end of the aisle and looked around. "This place is amazing, isn't it, Genichirou? Think of everything we could learn here. Who knows what kinds of spells have been lost over time, or what branches of magic we could revive? We could bring about a golden age for witches and wizards around the world. No one could stop us if we had this much knowledge."

Yukimura's endless ambition never failed to awe Sanada. When they were children, Yukimura always talked about of bringing honor back to the Yukimura family, of resurrecting his family's lost pride. They were older now, though not by much, and Yukimura set his eyes to different things, but his ambition and drive was the same.

Whether it was teaching a muggle-born like Yanagi to fly within a week, or becoming captain by third year and winning straight Quidditch House Cups, or leading the world into a golden age, Yukimura would want to do it and he could.

If Yukimura wanted to take over the world, he could do it, and Sanada would follow him.

But he had to become stronger if he wanted to stay by Yukimura's side.

"I wonder Muninn is back with any books yet," Yukimura said. He smiled at Sanada with ease, as if he hadn't just talked about being unstoppable.

Huginn had created a small pile of books around Yanagi, who was eagerly skimming each book as fast as he could.

"I never want to leave," Yanagi said, eyes glued to his books.

Yukimura laughed softly. "I don't think you'd be able to pass your classes that way."

"True," Yanagi conceded. "And if I were expelled for failing, I wouldn't be able to return here."

They heard the scraping of metal against stone and turned to look down the aisle. Muninn came around the corner with a book held gently between its beak. Balanced on its outstretched bronze wings were several more books. Yukimura and Sanada took all the books off the statue and made their own pile separate from Yanagi's.

"These books explain Elemental Affinity, though the ability is referenced directly or indirectly in at least two hundred and seventy four more books," Muninn said.

"How many books are in the library?" Yanagi asked curiously.

"Incalculable," Muninn said.

"How so?" Yukimura asked.

"All books that enter Hogwarts' grounds are duplicated here," Huginn said. "Mistress Rowena left an inexhaustible supply of blank tomes to be filled with all knowledge to come!"

Sanada looked down at the thick tome in his hands titled _Magical Properties of the Essential Elements_. He could learn about his Elemental Affinity, and Yanagi could fill his endless curiosity, and Yukimura could find what he needed to accomplish his goals.

Suddenly, all those traps that Ravenclaw set up made sense; this was a treasure worth preserving.

Ravenclaw must have been incredibly strong to conjure and enchant two statues and have them still be functional hundreds of years later. Or semi-functional, judging from the statues' scattered mental states.

How long would it take them to reach that level of skill?

The books Muninn had brought had everything he needed to know about his Elemental Affinity. The book he was reading described how each element could be manipulated, including spells and techniques, while Yukimura's included a list of previous wizards with Elemental Affinity.

"Merlin had Elemental Affinity, too, Genichirou," Yukimura said happily. He looked up from his book at Yanagi. "What are you reading?"

"Wandlore," Yanagi said. "Wands are more than channels that amplify a wizard's magical abilities. It's a very complex branch of magic…"

Sanada said, "This book says Elemental Affinity is the ability to channel elemental-based magic through your body. That must be what Professor Vega meant when he told me I would be able control the elements without a wand."

"I love magic," Yukimura said with a wide, sincere smile.

* * *

They read and read, losing themselves in the pages. Muninn and Huginn were more than willing to help, or talk, though Sanada only understood half of the nonsensical conversations between the statues.

"What time is it?" Yukimura asked suddenly. Sanada looked up from his book—he had not even thought of how long it had been since they left their common room for the Astronomy Tower.

Yanagi pulled up his sleeve to look at a tiny clock he had strapped to his wrist. "Quarter to five."

"We've been gone for _hours_ ," Sanada said, panicked.

Yanagi looked at the eagles. "Can we take books with us when we leave?"

Muninn nodded.

"Ah," Yukimura said suddenly. "But how do we come back here once we leave? I would rather not fall from the Astronomy Tower again…"

Sanada wasn't eager to try that again either. They had nearly died. If Yukimura had not pulled him over and levitated them both, he would be dead right now.

"Mistress Rowena thought of that," Huginn said. "You have it, do you not?"

"I do. Your hand," Muninn said. The eagle pecked at its wing with his beak, picked something out, and dropped it into Yukimura's outstretched hand. It was an old, heavy bronze key. "Mistress Rowena designed this. It opens a passage to the library. If you put it in any door and open the door, you will enter the library. It will change shape to fit whichever door you wish as long as it's inside the castle."

"A magical skeleton key," Yanagi said.

"Is it a key?" Huginn asked.

"It is," Muninn said.

"A key unlocks, it does not open."

"A skeleton opener?"

"That's barbaric."

"What's barbaric?"

"The key."

"I thought it wasn't a key."

Yukimura put the key in his pocket. Loudly, to get the eagles' attention and stop their argument, he said, "Thank you. Could you show us how to leave?"

"It would be our pleasure," the eagles said together. They lowered their heads for them to climb onto their backs.

They each took two or three books and, with some difficulty, mounted the statues' backs. They rose up, up, up, back to the level they had started on. The eagles took them to a plain wooden door different from the one they had entered through.

"This exit leads to your library," Muninn said, dipping down to let them dismount.

"Thank you," Yanagi said.

"We were created for the benefit of Hogwarts students," Huginn said. "It is our pleasure to finally fulfill our duty."

"You have the key?" Sanada asked.

Yukimura nodded.

"Then we should go," Yanagi said.

Yukimura opened the door. The door swung outward and they stepped through. They turned to look at where they had exited from and saw a bookcase swinging back into place, scrapping heavily across the wooden floor. The bookcase slid back into place with a thump. There was no visible crease or hinge, and Sanada doubted the door opened both ways.

Yanagi lit his wand, illuminating the dark space they had entered. They were still surrounded by bookcases, but the architecture and old wooden floors were more familiar to Sanada. They were in the Hogwarts library, but not in a part that Sanada had ever seen before.

"This must be the Restricted Section," Yanagi said.

Footsteps approached from around the corner and a lit wand appeared, growing closer. They shifted their books to one arm and drew their wands with their free hands.

"What now?" Sanada groaned.

The approaching figure lowered their wand, allowing them to see their face.

"What are you three doing here?" Akiteru asked. His voice was deep and serious. It was his prefect voice, not the easy-going voice he used around Yukimura and Sanada.

Yukimura smiled and lied easily, like he already had an excuse made up, "We fell asleep in the library. I think all of the other patrols missed us. We just woke up."

"That's no excuse for being in the Restricted Section. It's dangerous here."

Dangerous? Sanada thought. Akiteru gave them books with horrible spells that would make even some seventh years squirm uncomfortably. Their first night at Hogwarts, Akiteru gave them illegal maps that could land them in several weeks of detention.

Akiteru did not believe that danger should stop you from doing something.

Something wasn't right. This wasn't like his brother.

Sanada moved his wand and saw that Akiteru wasn't wearing his prefect badge. Akiteru would _never_ forget his prefect badge.

Sanada suddenly remembered their first night at Hogwarts. Yukimura and he had been on their way to meet Akiteru in the common room when they saw someone who looked exactly like his brother but did not acknowledge them. The lookalike hadn't been wearing a prefect badge either. Sanada had forgotten about it because the real Akiteru had brushed it off. They never learned what had happened that night.

"You're not Akiteru," Sanada said, narrowing his eyes and aiming his wand at the imposter's chest. His own chest puffed with anger and his shoulders tensed as he prepared to attack. He hated the idea of someone imitating his old brother. "Who are you?"

"I think I know," Yukimura said, approaching Akiteru's lookalike. He did the opposite of Sanada and lowered his wand, smiling at the doppelganger.

"Seiichi, what are you—"

"I know it's you," Yukimura said, " _Niou_."

Akiteru grinned wickedly like Sanada had never seen. Akiteru would never be capable of making that kind of devious grin.

"How'd you know?" the imposter asked.

"I saw you change in the common room on Halloween," Yukimura said. "You're a Metamorphmagus, aren't you? You can change your physical appearance at will."

In the blink of an eye, the person in front of them changed. Akiteru shrunk nearly a full foot. His skin paled, his hair lengthened and turned stark white, his eyes changed from brown to blue, and a small mole appeared on his chin. It was no longer Akiteru that stood in front of them but Niou.

"That would explain why you're always reading books on human transfiguration," Yanagi said. He lowered his wand like Yukimura.

Niou was dwarfed by his robes, which hung off his skinny body and puddle at his arms and legs. He looked like a child that had tried on his parent's clothes. Those were not the robes given to a first year.

"You stole Akiteru's robes the first night we were here," Sanada said angrily. "That's why we saw you—you were coming back from Akiteru's room!"

"Why Akiteru?" Yukimura asked curiously.

Niou shrugged.

"You should tell us, or we'll tell Akiteru," Yukimura said.

"That's childish," Niou said, glaring.

Yukimura tilted his head, his smile anything but childish. "I think it's smart. Akiteru may give us detention, but all the prefects will know there's a Metamorphmagus at school. It wouldn't be as easy for you to get past the other prefects."

Niou locked his jaw, grounding his teeth together. Knowing he was trapped, he said, "I thought looking like a prefect might have its uses. He introduced himself when he came into my compartment on the train and told me to change. It was easy enough to steal a pair of his robes when everyone was moving in. I may be able to change my appearance, but transfiguring these robes is harder than you'd think."

"How'd you find his room?" Sanada demanded.

"Even upperclassmen have name plaques on their doors," Niou said, bored. "It wasn't like it was hard."

Yukimura smiled darkly. "You're very clever."

"Not that clever if you caught me," Niou muttered.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," Yukimura said. "Neither will Genichirou or Yanagi."

"I don't have any choice but to trust you, do I?" Niou asked.

"No."

Though Yukimura and Yanagi had lowered their wands, Sanada's wand was still pointed at Niou's chest. "Don't impersonate my brother ever again," he spat angrily.

"You shouldn't," Yukimura advised. "If their mother found out, no one would find your body." Yukimura smiled sincerely despite having just threatened Niou with death.

If Niou was disturbed, he didn't let it show.

Yukimura looked at Sanada and Yanagi. "Let's go," he said.

Sanada nodded obediently. The three walked past Niou, who made no move to follow them.

They made it down to the dungeons and to the common room without running into any ghosts, or prefects, or Peeves. They entered the empty common room and hurried back to their dorm, locking the door shut behind them. They clutched their books to their chests, breathing heavily after moving so quickly.

"I think I'm going to lie down until breakfast," Sanada said. He set his books on Elemental Affinity on the chest at the end of his bed.

"That's a good idea," Yanagi said, moving towards his bed.

Exhaustion hit him hard. He fell face first onto his bed, his legs hanging off the edge, and did not have the energy to pull himself towards his pillows.

He could see Yukimura crawl into the center of his bed and heard Yanagi get onto his. Sanada felt as though he had drunk an entire cauldron of Sleeping Draught, and though his physical body was exhausted, his mind was racing with thoughts of their adventure.

When they were falling from the Astronomy Tower, had Yukimura given up his own safety to protect him? Yukimura could have held himself up without worry—he would have been _safe_ —but Yukimura chose to pull Sanada over and levitate the both of them. He had put his own life in danger to protect Sanada. Why would Yukimura bother saving his life if it put his own in danger?

He saw Yukimura tug his blankets up over his body. Now wasn't the time to ask. For now, all he could do was copy his friends and sleep.


	16. Summer

**Summer**

 _Yukimura Seiichi_

"Renji, pass me the butter."

Yukimura and Yanagi looked at Sanada, who was staring down at his book, _Magical Properties of the Essential Elements,_ while still managing to eat breakfast _._ Sanada spent so much time reading the book from Ravenclaw's library that Yukimura wondered if Sanada had accidentally glued his face to it and was too proud to admit it.

When Yanagi did not move to hand Sanada the butter, he looked up. He frowned at them. "Why are you two looking at me like that?"

"You called me by my first name," Yanagi said, reaching for the butter dish. "I was taken off guard since it was… unexpected."

"We nearly died down there," Sanada said, grabbing the butter for his toast then looking down at his book. "I think we're past being formal."

Yukimura smiled without meaning to. Sanada never would have said that a year ago, or even a few months ago.

"I agree," Yukimura said happily. "It's a long overdue change, if you ask me."

There were some things you couldn't share without ending up closer to someone, and nearly falling to your death and surviving a dead witch's mad puzzles was one of them.

* * *

The last days of the school year were spent sitting through exams, exchanging addresses and telephone numbers, and making plans for the upcoming summer break. Yukimura was less concerned about his exams, which he had been studying for diligent since they discovered the library, than he was about keeping in touch with his friends.

"Do either of you receive mail the muggle way through the postal service?" Yanagi asked. "I don't have an owl so I can't send letters that way."

Sanada frowned. "Our living arrangements are complicated."

Yukimura nodded in agreement. He said, "We live near an all-magical village, which is unplottable and has several old charms around it, so we don't receive mail the muggle way."

"Oh," Yanagi said, clearly crestfallen.

Yukimura frowned as he thought of a way to keep in touch over summer break. Getting owls to Sanada's house was nearly impossible, and even if Yukimura sent out his owl to Yanagi's home, Yanagi would have to care for the owl long enough for it to regain its energy and for Yanagi to write a response. Could a muggle household care for an owl that long?

"I have a muggle telephone in my house," Sanada said helpfully, getting both Yukimura and Yanagi's attention. "I know how to use it, too. Seiichi doesn't have one, but we live on the same street."

"I'll give you my home number, then," Yanagi said. "Do you know the number of yours?"

"No—we don't use it much—but Akiteru should know it. He has muggle-born friends who call him during break. I'll ask him later."

"You have to come and see us during break," Yukimura said excitedly. "We have spare rooms in my house. I can show you my garden! It's not as impressive as my father's greenhouse, but I have a few new projects planned for this summer."

"We could practice Quidditch," Sanada said. "And you would like the village we live near. Even muggles know it."

"Yes, you'll love it," Yukimura agreed, smiling at Yanagi. "I won't take 'no' for an answer, Renji."

"I would love to come," Yanagi said. "I look forward to it."

Without Quidditch practice or the scroll to keep them busy, they had more time than ever to study, and they desperately needed it. They spent their breaks with Marui and Jackal, reviewing Charms and Astronomy, or with Niou and Yagyuu, going over Transfiguration.

On Friday, they all met together in the hidden room behind the tapestry on the fifth floor to study; Yanagi was helping them with Potions while Yukimura talked about Herbology. Niou sat next to Yagyuu on the floor with his copy of _Magical Drafts and Potions_ , nibbling on a Chocoball he stole from Marui's bag (Marui had yet to discover this) and flipping through the pages of his book with a flick of his wand. Niou did not mention the incident in the library, but neither did Yukimura.

Though different houses had different classes together, all first years were sitting their exams together. There wouldn't be enough time to hold every exam for every year otherwise. The classrooms had been expanded and extra desks had been added to seat everyone. They were even being given enchanted quills that would prevent students from cheating. Hogwarts took exams very seriously.

For Transfiguration, Professor Saito had them sit through a brutally difficult written exam, and then a practical where he had them transfigure several objects into birds with the Avifors Spell. The practicals were held at the front of the room in front of everyone.

"Pressure helps build mental strength," Professor Saito had said with a sly smile. It was easy to forget their professor was head of Slytherin.

Atobe transfigured a chair into a flamboyantly large peacock, which earned him points for complexity and beauty, but he lost points because it had four legs, two of which were still wooden.

Akutagawa's bird immediately tried to nest in Professor Saito's hair; Mukahi's bird attacked Kikumaru's; and Shishido's flew straight into a window and reverted back to a lantern.

Both Niou and Yagyuu managed to create a small flock of birds from a set of crystal wine glasses during their practical.

Jackal successfully transfigured a bird but lost points when it was too heavy to fly and merely wobbled across Professor Saito's desk.

Marui was able to transfigure a single bird from his object. Professor Saito applauded him for his simplicity and conservation of energy. After leaving, Marui told Yukimura, "I only did it because I end up with a two headed bird if I try to transfigure two."

Sanada and Yanagi both managed to transfigure two birds, earning full points.

Yukimura made three songbirds from his golden goblet and Professor Saito was so impressed by their voices that he gave Yukimura extra points—"For a moment, I though you transfigured them from crystal," Professor Saito said.

With Transfiguration finished, they hurried over to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

No one was surprised when Professor Reyna took them to a long, twisted, pitch-black corridor on the fourth floor to do an obstacle course.

She had four students go at the same time, one from each house. They had to make their way through the corridor with their wands lit while Professor Reyna sent pillows flying at them; they had to quickly use a Knockback Jinx to keep them away while keeping their wands lit, or they would run into each other or the walls. At the end of the corridor, they had to answer several questions asked by a seventh year NEWT student then shoot colored sparks at a target thirty feet away—Slytherins sent out green sparks, Gryffindors red, Ravenclaws blue, and Hufflepuffs yellow.

Marui groaned from behind Yukimura. "That means Jackal can't be my human shield this time."

Jackal rolled his eyes. Sarcastically, he said, "Yeah, poor you."

"Yes, exactly, poor me!"

Nearby, Niou snickered in his hand. Marui whirled around to glare at Niou, who did not notice until Yagyuu gently elbowed him. Then Niou looked at Marui with a bland, detached look.

Marui said, "I bet a galleon that I can beat whatever time you get, Niou."

"Can I bet against you?" Jackal asked.

"I also bet on Niou," Yukimura said, smiling mischievously.

"What?" Marui exclaimed, quickly turning his head to look between his friends. His mouth was open in overdramatic shock and horror. "You'd bet on a _snake_ over me?"

"I'm a snake," Yukimura said defensively, "and Niou's always had good times on the obstacle courses. He's my friend just as much as you are, Marui, so stop talking about him like that. You two don't have to get along, but don't hate him just because he was sorted into Slytherin."

"He hates me for being in Gryffindor," Marui replied.

"Actually," Niou said in a flat voice with a bored expression, "I hate you because you blew gum into my hair and were a jerk about it."

"Oh," Marui said, clearly surprised. He looked like he had just choked on an Acid Pop. "My bad."

The tips of Niou's bangs turned black and he turned away. No one but Yukimura seemed to notice the color change.

"I'm betting on you, Marui," Yanagi said, diffusing the tension.

Marui brightened, smiling and tossing an arm around Yanagi's shoulder. "See, Yanagi's got my back."

"FIRST GROUP!" Professor Reyna shouted, silencing all chatter. "Niou from Slytherin, Marui from Gryffindor, Oishi from Ravenclaw, and Holmes from Hufflepuff."

Niou smirked at Marui, who grumbled, "Merlin's pants."

In the end, Niou won, but Yukimura and Jackal didn't accept their winnings.

Yukimura was grouped with Tachibana from Gryffindor, Atobe from Ravenclaw, and Tezuka from Hufflepuff. Yukimura ducked and dodged the five pillows thrown at him, hitting away another two with the jinx, and turned around the corners without hitting a single wall.

He quickly answered the questions on werewolves, imps, and bowtruckles, and was given to okay to begin aiming at his target. Tezuka was one question behind him, Atobe had just finished, and Tachibana was not far behind.

Yukimura took one second to aim, shouted, " _Verdimillious_!" and hit his target dead on. He had aimed for the joints of enchanted suits of armor—hitting a large, circular target with a bull's-eye was nothing compared to that.

"Yukimura, you pass," Professor Reyna said. Seconds later, the others were finishing. "Tezuka, you're done. Atobe, you too. Tachibana, relax your shoulder"—Tachibana's red sparks hit their target—"NEXT GROUP!"

Charms was their most enjoyable exam. Professor Watanabe called them into the classroom one by one and gave them an object to charm. Rumor said that Shiraishi made a pineapple sprout wings and fly around Professor Watanabe's head, which made him laugh so hard he cried and gave Shiraishi perfect marks.

Tezuka came out of the room looking very serious. Fuji, Kikumaru, Oishi, Inui, and Kawamura circled around him. Yukimura listened in.

"What did he give you, Tezuka?" Oishi asked.

"A bouquet of flowers," Tezuka said. "I cut the flowers from the stems with the Severing Charm then levitated the flowers."

"You should have set them on fire," Fuji said.

Yukimura was given a suit of armor. Yukimura smiled at the irony for a brief moment then levitated the suit of armor and made it dance in circles above Professor Watanabe's head. He brought the suit of armor back to the ground, the metal clanking.

"Very well done," Professor Watanabe said, making notes. "Excellent control, Yukimura. You really have a knack for Charms. I should have given you something more difficult."

"One moment, Professor, I'm not done."

Professor Watanabe smiled excitedly and looked up. "Oh?"

Yukimura pointed his wand at the suit of armor and said, " _Incendio_!" Pale blue flames shot from his wand, encasing the suit of armor, which sizzled and melted into a puddle.

"Fantastic!" Professor Watanabe said. "Perfect parts destructive and impressive."

Yukimura frowned despite Professor Watanabe's praise. His flames were still not as hot as Sanada's had been down in the tunnel. He refused to lose to Sanada.

They had Herbology on Wednesday morning. They took their written exam inside, and then traveled to the greenhouses for their practical. They demonstrated their Fire-Making Charm on Spiky Bushes, and showed they knew how to identify and handle plants that excreted a purple puff of poison when its buds were removed improperly. They then had to harvest various poisonous plants for their leaves and flowers, which were used in potions.

Professor Vega was very happy to see that Sanada had learned to control his Fire-Making Charm. "Very well done, Mister Sanada," Professor Vega said. His long white beard had spikes from the bushes and aconite petals this week.

Sanada and Yanagi's third member, Amy Holmes from Hufflepuff, forgot to wear her gloves and had to be rushed to the Hospital Wing for wormwood poisoning.

Yukimura, Fuji, and Shiraishi were the first ones to realize the plants labeled asphodel were actually hemlock and that Professor Vega was trying to trick them—the two plants required very different handling and pruning for ingredients.

Yukimura passed with full marks.

* * *

Each exam seemed tougher than the last, and by the end of the week, nearly the entire school was sluggish with exhaustion. Fifth years like Akiteru celebrated completing their O. while seventh years toasted to their graduation and N.E.W.T completion.

The Gryffindors were celebrating more than the fifth and seventh years combined by the time of the end of term feast. The Great Hall had been decked out in red and gold to celebrate Gryffindor's winning the House Cup for the fourth year in a row. Red and gold streamers hung from the rafters, and glitter shined on the cobblestone floor. A huge banner showing the Gryffindor lion covered the wall behind the High Table where the staff sat.

Yukimura and many of the other Slytherins were bitter about their standing in the House Cup. Despite his bitter feelings, when he looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw Marui standing on the bench, shouting something, and Jackal pulling him back down, Yukimura laughed.

Students talked anxiously over their empty plates and goblets, eager to begin eating. Eventually, Professor Kurobe stood, gaining the attention of the entire hall.

"Congratulations to all of you for making it through another year!" Professor Kurobe said with a rare smile. There was a brief round of applause that quickly died away. "This year, there have been victories and losses, some big and some small, but you have grown in ways you have yet to realize. I hope to see returning students achieve such greatness again next year, and I hope that those who are graduating continue to strive for the top and push themselves.

"Before we can begin the end of term feast, I must announce the winners of the House Cup."

The winners were quite obvious, Yukimura thought, but he did not care that Slytherin had lost to Gryffindor. They had found Rowena Ravenclaw's lost library—the House Cup did not quite compare.

"In fourth place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and twelve points. In third place, Slytherin, with three hundred and fifty two points."

Yukimura clapped half-heartedly with the rest of his house. Professor Kurobe went on, "In second place, Ravenclaw, with four hundred and twenty-six points. And lastly, in first place, for the fourth year in a row, Gryffindor, with four hundred and seventy-two points!"

The Gryffindor table erupted in a storm of noise as students stomped on the ground and shouted out. Their house ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, hoisted his sword up into the air and shouted, nearly as loud as the students. Professor Ryuzaki was brimming with pride while Professor Saito shook her hand with a forced, thin-lipped smile.

"Now then," Professor Kurobe said, "let the feast begin!"

The food appeared and their goblets filled. Yukimura quickly ate his fill of roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, chicken breast, and pumpkin juice. He had been at Hogwarts a year and had yet to learn to pace himself during feasts.

The ghosts glistened up and down the aisles, stopping to talk to students, congratulating Gryffindor and Nearly Headless Nick, who was brimming with ghostly pride.

Despite the chaos of the Great Hall, Yukimura noticed that there was one ghost missing from the ceremony.

Yukimura set down his knife and fork, stood up, and said, "I need to use the bathroom. Save me some dessert if I take too long."

Sanada gave him a peculiar look as he left the Great Hall, but did not stop him.

Yukimura quickly ascended the main staircase. He stopped on the second floor and made his way towards the Astronomy Corridor. As expected, gliding elegantly through the empty Astronomy Corridor was the Grey Lady.

Yukimura approached the ghost cautiously, knowing she was prone to disappear if startled. Very few students were able to talk to her, even within her own house. The Bloody Baron, while intimidating, talked more frequently to Slytherin students than the Grey Lady did with Ravenclaws.

The Grey Lady heard his approached. She turned and looked at him.

"You," she said, tone unreadable.

"I found the library," Yukimura said. "I've been curious about why you wanted to keep it hidden from me, though."

The Grey Lady faltered. "My mother's library? That is what you were after?"

"Your mother—?"

The Grey Lady approached him. She seemed less translucent and more solid, as though she could actually harm him. In a second, she was inches from his face, hovering over him, looking at him with once-dark eyes as though she was looking into his soul.

Yukimura inhaled sharply, but remained calm, knowing it was impossible for a ghost to hurt him. He had nearly fallen to his death, faced enchanted suits of armor, and solved riddles made by one of the brightest witches of all time—a mere ghost did not scare him.

"If you were only after her library, then why ask me such strange, horrible things?" the Grey Lady asked loudly, her voice broken with anger and sadness, her emotions conflicted by confusion.

"I didn't ask you anything." Yukimura frowned, thinking quickly. "Did someone else ask you horrible things?"

The Grey Lady moved back several inches, startled by his response. Her answer was surprisingly earnest, her voice softer, "A student from your house asked me about what is buried beneath the school. They wore the emblem of the snake on their chest. I do not remember who it was. My mind—my memories—they're not complete."

The Grey Lady turned her back to him and floated down the corridor towards the base of the tower. Yukimura followed after her. She spoke to herself, but he heard her distressed mumbling, "They asked me dreadful things, and when I refused to answer, they made me."

The Grey Lady stopped in the middle of the room at the end of the corridor. They were standing in the Astronomy Tower, the same room with the gems and the disappearing floor that led to the secret labyrinth and the library.

"What are you talking about?" Yukimura asked calmly. The Grey Lady was making less sense than Muninn and Huginn. "What did they ask about?"

"What is lost should remain lost, and what is dead should remain dead." The Grey Lady looked over her shoulder at him. She was the ghost of Ravenclaw, a house of knowledge, but her face held no answers.

If what she said was true, then someone had managed to force a ghost to do something and then charmed their memory. How was that possible? Yukimura had never read or heard of anything like that in his life. Spells worked on the living, not on ghosts.

"You are welcome to my mother's library, if you have passed her trials, though be careful who else you show it to. There are those in your house who are meddling in the darkest of things. I wish I could tell you who."

"If you remember, will you tell me?"

"I must go."

The Grey Lady sank through the floor, and Yukimura was left standing, alone, with more questions than answers.

He returned to the Great Hall moments after dessert had been served. He slid back into his seat between Sanada and Niou, who looked at him curiously but didn't ask.

"That was a long bathroom trip," Yanagi commented.

"Was it?" Yukimura questioned.

"You weren't in the bathroom, were you?" Sanada asked lowly.

"Is that pudding?" Yukimura said happily.

Yukimura would tell them later, when they were away from prying eyes and eavesdroppers.

* * *

Too soon their trunks and bags were packed, their chests stuffed with everything they had accumulated over the year: spare quills, excess candy, gifts and assignments, and books from Ravenclaw's lost library. They rode horseless carriages down to Hogsmeade Station to board the Hogwarts Express and return home.

Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi found a compartment with Marui and Jackal.

Once the whistle blew and the train jerked forward, they locked the compartment door and told the Gryffindors everything: the hidden room on the seventh floor corridor; discovering Rowena Ravenclaw's involvement; the Astronomy Tower; the tests; and the library. Marui and Jackal were a very good audience, gasping in all the right places. When Sanada mentioned the suits of armor, Jackal's eyes widened in disbelief. When Yukimura told them about Muninn and Huginn, Marui smiled with glee.

"Why didn't you tell us _before_ we took our exams?" Marui asked finally. "We could have studied there!"

"You did fine on your exams, though, didn't you?" Yukimura said.

"Well, yeah, but I could have done better in Herbology and Potions. Professor Kurobe didn't say anything when I handed in my Wiggenweld Potion—it ended up blue instead of green!"

"It was _our_ potion," Jackal said, "and he said we did fine."

"So do you think this library place has a section on candy?" Marui asked eagerly.

Jackal fixed his housemate a look. "You'd have hundreds of years of lost knowledge to look through, and you'd want to read about candy?"

"You can never know too much about candy, Jackal."

"Wait," Jackal said suddenly, "what was down the other two paths beneath the Astronomy Tower?"

Yukimura frowned. "We don't know. The door locked behind us once we entered the library, and we decided it was too dangerous to go back down through the tower."

The trolley reached them before Atobe, and they bought a small pile of sweets to last them the journey. They played Exploding Snap and talked about their summer plans. Jackal was excited to see his muggle friends and join a summer football league (a muggle game equivalent to Quidditch, according to Yanagi), and Marui was talking about rediscovering the bakeries near his house. The two had already made plans to see each other.

"We actually live in the same town," Jackal said. "We just never met because I grew up in the muggle part and he grew up in the magic part."

"My mom's muggle-born," Marui said, blowing a yellow bubble. "She just never went back to her world after going to Hogwarts."

"The worlds are very divided," Yanagi agreed. "It seems like witches and wizards go out of their way to distance themselves from anything muggle. I couldn't find any books written by muggles in the library. I'm going to spend the entire summer catching up with my muggle studies…"

"Wait," Jackal said, clearly shocked. "You're a muggle-born like me?"

Yanagi turned red. He nodded hesitantly. "Please don't tell anyone. People in my house can be, well…"

"No, of course," Jackal responded quickly. He was obviously trying to process the new information. It was quite a shock for Yukimura as well, all those months ago. "Marui won't say anything either."

Yanagi smiled. "Thank you."

The hours spent laughing and eating on the train did not last long enough. The prefects came by, announcing they would be arriving soon and they needed to change into muggle clothes.

Yukimura didn't want to leave to train, to leave Hogwarts, but he knew he had to. There was only a few months separating him from his next year, and he already planned on counting down the days.

The trio stepped onto the platform, scanning the crowd for their families. Everywhere, students were hugging their friends good-bye and rushing over to their families with their luggage in tow. Niou walked over to a family of four; neither of his parents or siblings looked like him, which did not surprise Yukimura, given Niou's unique ability. Marui introduced Jackal to his family, two redheaded boys jumping onto and hanging off of Jackal, who looked at Marui, panicked.

"I see my parents and sister," Yanagi said, waving towards a family of three near a pillar. Yanagi's older sister waved back.

"You should go," Yukimura said. "We'll see you this summer."

"I promise to call every week," Sanada said. "But you should call if I forget."

Yanagi smiled and nodded.

Yukimura smiled broadly as well, quickly hugged his friend, and waved good-bye with Sanada as Yanagi walked towards his family. His mother wrapped him tightly in her arms before he was tugged into his older sister's hug.

In the other direction, Yukimura saw his own family—his parents and his little sister—and Sanada's parents. Yukimura and Sanada headed towards them, and were spotted in the crowd. Their families approached.

Emiko reached them before their parents, having run over.

"Hey, Emiko," Yukimura said with a fond smile.

His sister hugged him briefly then did the same to Sanada.

"Where's Akiteru?" Emiko asked, pushing herself up onto the tips of her toes and craning her neck. She spotted Akiteru coming off the train with a Gryffindor and a Ravenclaw, and dashed over. "Akiteru!" she squealed as she tackled him with a hug.

Akiteru laughed and hugged back.

The Yukimuras and Sanadas approached their sons. Sanada nodded stiffly at his parents before his mother waved him over for a hug, kissing his cheek and smudging away the lipstick with her thumb. Mrs. Yukimura hugged her son tightly to her chest for several long seconds before letting go.

"How was school?" Mrs. Yukimura asked with a warm smile that Yukimura hadn't even realized he had missed. "Anything interesting happen?"

Yukimura looked at Sanada, the pair smiling at one another, then back at his mother. Yukimura said, "Oh, nothing too interesting..."

* * *

 _ **Fin**_


End file.
